U.S. promoting extremism to undermine Iran: Rafsanjani

TEHRAN, Aug. 31 (MNA) -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has stated that the United States is trying to promote “Islamic” extremism in order to undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The enemies of Islam and Iran are incensed that Islam is rising in the West, and this anger has manifested itself in derogatory remarks about the Quran, Rafsanjani stated at a gathering of Iranian and foreign Quran reciters in Tehran on Monday.

He stated that a fourth of the world’s population loves the Quran, adding that Muslims take immense pride in the fact that they are blessed with the Quran.

He strongly condemned the outrageous plan by a U.S. church pastor to burn the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Rafsanjani made the remarks in response to the plan of Terry Jones, the senior pastor of a church at the Dove World Outreach Center, who has brazenly said his group is planning to stage what they call a “Burn the Quran Day” on September 11, 2010.

“We only did it because we felt there needed to be an outcry against Islam, because Islam is presenting itself as a religion of peace,” Jones told the Christian Post on Tuesday.

A proposal by the Cordoba Initiative to construct an Islamic community center, including a mosque, in Lower Manhattan, near Ground Zero of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, has sparked debate in the United States.

Speaking at an iftar (Ramadan fast-breaking) dinner on August 13, U.S. President Barack Obama threw his weight behind the project, saying, “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”

And “that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances”, he added.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has hailed the president’s speech as a “clarion defense of the freedom of religion.”