Petition Against the Burning of the Holy Qur'an

Book burning by ideologues has a very long history accompanied by oppression, great strife and suffering. It has come to our attention that the Dove World Outreach Center, a non denominational Evangelical Church, in Gainesville, Florida will commemorate 9/11 with the burning of the Qur’an. This situation is not only a violation of our Constitutional rights but is a hateful act against any religion. Freedom of Speech must be balanced with the Freedom of Religion. Here, the Dove World Outreach Center seeks to infringe upon the practice and belief of the Islamic religion. Furthermore, in a society that advocates education and free thought, it is unacceptable to attempt to burn books, no matter what those books may be.
Burning any religious text, goes against the tenets of every major religion in the world: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. The actions of the Dove World Outreach Center violate everything that we, as Americans, stand for. The issue was discussed on the CNN segment “Rick’s List” with Rick Sanchez. We need to safeguard the freedom our Constitution guarantees us and see this book burning not only as a violation of our Constitutional rights but as a hateful act against one group of people. It is bigotry.
We, the undersigned, are requesting the State of Florida to stop the “International Burn a Quran Day” in Gainesville, as well as in any other location here in Florida.

Respectfully,
The Interfaith Justice League
- Pundit Baldath Maharaj of Florida Sevashram Sangha (Lake Worth, Florida)
- Reverend Renwick Bell of Church of Our Savior MCC (Boynton Beach, Florida)
- Rabbi Barry Silver of Congregation L'Dor Va Dor (Lake Worth, Florida)
- Shokai Kathleen Bishop of Southern Palm Zen Group (Boca Raton, Florida)
- Imam Shaik Shafayet Mohamed of Darul Uloom Institute (Hollywood, Florida)
- Larry Stauber of 1st Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches (North Palm Beach, Florida)