A Koran burns, Muslims riot, a pastor says too bad

Yesterday, Muslims in Afghanistan stormed a U.N. compound, killing at least seven U.N. workers. The reason, according to reports, was the actions of an ignorant preacher some 7,500 miles away: Terry Jones, the pastor of a 30-member church that received international attention last fall for saying he would torch the Koran.

He didn’t then. But he did just last month, and Muslims are rioted over it.

On March 20, he presided over what he called an “International Judge the Koran Day” in which he supervised the burning of the book in front of some 50 people.

Video posted on the website of his Dove World Outreach Center church showed a kerosene-soaked book going up in bright flames in a metal fire pit similar to those often found in backyards and patios, but located inside the church.

“We believe parts of the Koran, if taken literally, do lead to violence and terrorist activities, do promote racism or prejudice against minorities, against Christians, against women,” he said shortly after the Koran burning.

“The terrorist jihad people use the Koran,” he said.

CNN’s John King told viewers Friday night that he had had a chance to interview Jones and ask him how he felt about the reaction to the Koran burning, which he had been warned about. But he wasn’t sorry, and his words were too ugly to repeat, according to USA Today’s Cathy Lynn Grossman:

But it was all “too hateful” to air. After long discussion within CNN, King told viewers, the interview would not be shown, even though, King says, he “pushed back hard” at Jones’ anti-Islamic remarks.