WASHINGTON — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is strongly against the "Burn a Koran Day" that has been proposed by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., to occur this Saturday on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.
VFW National CommanderRichard L. Eubank, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Eugene, Ore., said this self-serving act to burn another religion's holy book will fuel anti-American sentiment for years, and directly endanger our troops and destroy the goodwill that they have built throughout the world's Muslim nations.
"No one will remember the tremendous multi-national coalition that freed Kuwait back in 1991, or America's huge humanitarian response in Indonesia after the 2005 tsunami or this year's disastrous flooding in Pakistan," said Eubank, who said no one outside the United States will recognize or even care that the act was done by a single or small group of individuals.
"The only thing Muslims will remember and our enemies will exploit was American laws permitted American citizens to burn the Islamic holy book without consequence," he said.
"The First Amendment may protect the pastor and his follower's right to protest, but there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose from this selfish act," said Eubank. "Our war is against a small number of religious extremists who kill indiscriminately and without remorse. Let's not allow an equally small number of religious extremists in America to widen the war."