The 'Burn the Quran Day' planned -- and now apparently cancelled -- by a small U.S. church sparked outrage worldwide.
Such an event would not only have hurt the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims but also of billions of peace-loving people belonging to different religions and cultures of the world.
Such an act is deeply offensive and would have increased divisions and hatred. It could only have been helpful for the cause of extremists, to provide them grounds to exploit the situation to validate their philosophy of hatred. It would have enabled them to recruit vulnerable youth and fuel the growing wave of home-grown radicalization in the U.S. and abroad.
If this event had gone ahead it would not be less than 9/11 in the sense of far-reaching consequences and after-effects. It risked religious clashes and riots. It would have impacted badly upon peacemaking efforts worldwide, the culture of dialogue, and the processes of cohesion and integration between different religions and communities.
Any step which creates a rift between societies, becomes a cause of division between societies, and is damaging for societal cohesion, no matter where it is from and who is committing it, should not be allowed.
A handful of individuals, it does not matter whether they are related to mosque or church, cannot be given the right to flippantly play about with peaceful co-existence, and their so-called sentiments cannot be preferred over global peace.
After the efforts of generations, humanity has come to a point where peaceful coexistence has become a universally agreed principal, and we should not allow any individuals, no matter what their religion is, to push the world back to the path of religious crusading.
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