Burning issue: archbishop calls for arrest of U.S. pastor over Quran burning

The violent reaction to the incident has prompted a response from a Catholic leader in Pakistan.

Details, from Catholic News Service:

The president of the Pakistani bishops’ conference has called for the arrest of a U.S. Protestant pastor whose decision to burn the Islamic sacred book has caused fury in the Muslim world and the deaths of more than 20 people.

Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, conference president, said the U.S. government should seek to diffuse mounting tensions by detaining the Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center Church in Gainesville, Fla., who oversaw the burning of the Quran by the Rev. Wayne Sapp, his assistant.

“The U.S. government should detain the pastor for some time,” Archbishop Saldanha told the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity for persecuted Christians around the world.

“In view of the effects his actions have had all over the world, he should be controlled and understand the harm that has been done,” he said in an April 4 telephone interview.

“The U.S. government talks about religious freedom — but we call upon the U.S. government to prevent such actions by extremists and other fundamentalist Christians,” the archbishop said.

He added that although there had been no reports of attacks on Pakistani Christians by Muslims outraged by the Quran burning, he said he feared that the situation “could become ugly.”

Read more.