Most Popular
-
1
Dongduk Women’s University halts coeducation talks
-
2
Defense ministry denies special treatment for BTS’ V amid phone use allegations
-
3
Russia sent 'anti-air' missiles to Pyongyang, Yoon's aide says
-
4
OpenAI in talks with Samsung to power AI features, report says
-
5
Two jailed for forcing disabled teens into prostitution
-
6
South Korean military plans to launch new division for future warfare
-
7
Gold bars and cash bundles; authorities confiscate millions from tax dodgers
-
8
Kia EV9 GT marks world debut at LA Motor Show
-
9
Teen smoking, drinking decline, while mental health, dietary habits worsen
-
10
Trump picks ex-N. Korea policy official as his principal deputy national security adviser
Iran on Monday slammed a US pastor's burning of a Koran, calling it provocative and demanding US authorities take action to prevent any recurrence.
Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency that it "strongly condemns this ridiculous, insulting and provoking act by a so-called American priest in overt contempt of the holy Koran."
The condemnation was in reaction to a Saturday ceremony in which Florida pastor Terry Jones set fire to the Muslim holy book and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest Iran's imprisonment of an Iranian Christian clergyman, Yousef Nadarkhani.
The act was broadcast online in a YouTube video that climaxed with Jones and a handful of followers repeating the US oath of allegiance as the Koran burned.
Jones, who rebuffed a US Defence Department request to desist out of fear for US troops' safety abroad, was behind a March 2011 burning of the Koran by his assistant that triggered violence in northern Afghanistan in which at least
12 people were killed.
Iran's foreign ministry said the latest burning was the result of "Islamophobia" in the West.
It said the world was "awaiting a quick, serious and frank response by the US government to this act so it is never repeated."
The ministry said the Koran burning "undoubtedly creates religious hatred and will provoke Muslim anger worldwide."
The act by Jones came as US and Iranian officials prepared for important talks on Tehran's nuclear programme that are to be held in Baghdad on May 23.
While Iran is expressing optimism over those talks, any failure could stoke tensions between the Islamic republic and the West and strengthen the possibility of military action by the United States or Israel.
Nadarkhani, the Christian evangelical pastor in prison in Iran, was arrested in 2009 and condemned to death for converting to Christianity when he was 19.
Iran's supreme court overturned the death sentence in July 2011 and a retrial took place in September 2011, but no verdict was made public.
Nadarkhani's lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who himself risks incarceration for defending the pastor and a dissident in another case, told AFP that his client "must be released," based on religious edicts from prominent Iranian clerics.
The lawyer declined to comment on the Koran burning protest for Nadarkhani in the United States. (AFP)
코란 불태웠던 목사 이번엔…
이란은 30일(현지시간) 코란을 불태운 미국 목사를 비난 하고 미국 정부에 재발방지 대책을 촉구했다.
이란 외무부는 관영 IRNA통신을 통해 발표한 성명서에서 "미국에서 성직자라고 불리는 사람이 신성한 코란에 대해 공공연히 경멸하는 터무니 없고 모욕적이며 자극 적인 행동을 강하게 규탄한다"고 밝혔다.
이번 규탄 성명은 28일 테리 존스 목사가 유세프 나다르카니 목사의 투옥에 항의해 미국 플로리다에서 코란과 이슬람 선지자 모하메드의 사진을 불태운 데 따른 것이다.
존슨 목사는 지난해 3월에도 그의 지지자들과 코란을 불태운 적이 있으며 당시 촉발된 아프가니스탄 폭력 사태로 최소 12명이 목숨을 잃었다.
미 국방부는 존스 목사에게 국외에 주둔하고 있는 미군 병사의 안전을 고려해 이같은 행위를 중지해 달라고 요청했으나 그는 이를 거절했다.
이란 외무부는 "이번 코란 소각 사건은 서양의 이슬람혐오증의 결과물이며 이러 한 행동이 다시는 반복되지 않게 미국 정부의 신속하고 진지하며 솔직한 응답을 기다린다"고 밝혔다.
기독교로 개종한 혐의로 2009년 이란에서 사형을 선고받았던 나다르카니 목사는 지난해 7월 이란 대법원이 사형 선고를 뒤집었으나 아직 최종 판결이 나오지 않았다.
나다르카니 목사의 변호를 맡은 모하메드 알리 다카는 그가 반드시 석방되어야 한다고 주장했지만 이번 코란 소각 사건에 대해서는 언급을 피했다.
