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Commentators discuss the plans of a small US church to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary.

The you can't link the Ground Zero mosque plans with the plans to burn Korans:

"Regardless of how one feels about plans to build a mosque in lower Manhattan, the two controversies are not comparable. One is about the appropriate place to erect a house of worship and interfaith dialogue. This publicity stunt, on the other hand, has no redeeming virtue at all."

The chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, known in the press as the Ground Zero Mosque, that the 9/11 anniversary should be used for Americans of all religions to come together:

"From those who recognize our rights, from grassroots organizers to heads of state, I sense a global desire to build on this positive momentum and to be part of a global movement to heal relations and bring peace. This is an opportunity we must grasp.
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"I therefore call upon all Americans to rise to this challenge. Let us commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by pausing to reflect and meditate and tone down the vitriol and rhetoric that serves only to strengthen the radicals and weaken our friends' belief in our values."

the Koran burnings signify an ongoing rise in Islamophobia:

"Unfortunately, this new trend of Islamophobia is becoming mainstream. It is fostering an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Worst of all it is nurturing extremism on both sides of the spectrum. The Muslim world can also perceive this as part of a bigger war on Islam. Let us instead try to foster an environment of mutual respect and mutual understanding where we respect each other regardless of our religious affiliations."

that the incident needs to be put into perspective:

"Clearly this action by this 50-person congregation down a rural road in Gainesville, Fla., is not exactly parallel to Kristallnacht, the 1938 Night of Broken Glass, a Nazi-inspired pogrom when mobs smashed and burned synagogues, a precursor to horrors of the Holocaust to come.
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"Ofcourse, they didn't have the Internet and social media to get the world out like we do now, so Pastor Terry Jones may be able to leverage the power of this image - a holy book in flames - to worldwide attention and then attempt to disclaim any impact it may have."

another pastor Marc Grizzard also getting a lot of publicity for a promised book-burning last year and wonders if the media should instead decide not to cover the event:

"Just as has happened with the Florida church that promises to burn the Quran, Grizzard was warned by local officials that his church could be slapped with a huge fine, in his case as high as $25,000, because book burning would violate local ordinances.
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"So Grizzard and his people reconsidered; they had a non-book burning party, instead shredding the Bibles and other books that drew their ire if not their fire.
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"The few media who showed up had to take their word for it since it all happened inside the little church. Grizzard proclaimed the event a great success. And it was. A church with a membership of 14 got world-wide publicity."

Pastor Terry Jones is based in Gainesville, where the for the media onslaught expected over the weekend:

"To most of us in this eclectic college berg we still like to call "Hogtown," his 15 minutes of fame is beginning to feel like an eternity in purgatory.
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"I'm trying to remember the last time Gainesville was the focus of so much worldwide attention without a football or basketball figuring into the plot line. Maybe it was the time they hoisted a small blue-and-white UN flag over city hall and the radio shock jock hosts went.
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"But now they're talking about Gainesville in the White House, the Vatican and on the streets of Kabul, Islamabad and Jakarta. And not in a good way. Nobody knows what's going to happen here on Saturday, but suddenly the UF-USF game feels like a side show. And all because a self-proclaimed man of God with a painfully small congregation and a gift for self-promotion happens to call Gainesville his home...right now, anyway."

that Muslim extremists will be offended whether or not the Koran is burned:

"Yet who are we kidding? In the absence of the Koran-burning, the Taliban and other assorted Muslim extremists will find other insults - real or imagined - to fan their propaganda flames and fuel their anti-Western hatred. It is foolhardy to think we are dealing with a rational foe who, in the absence of any direct provocation by us, would leave us alone in peace."

The director of Islamic studies at the University of Delaware Muslims not to rise to, what he sees as, provocation:

"If Muslims react with anger and indiscriminate violence then one of Terry Jones' goals will be fulfilled. He would have shown the world that some Muslims are more barbaric than even he is. Be patient, encourage everyone to be patient, let Terry Jones enjoy the monopoly on barbarity for a while."

why Republican senators seem to be keeping quiet about the Koran burning:

"If the senators want to show their genuine support for Petraeus (and not just indulge in an easy political stunt), they should denounce Terry Jones for endangering the troops and providing aid and comfort to the enemy - and, better still, send federal marshals to Gainesville, Fla., to help the local fire chief (who has ordered Jones not to burn the books) maintain public safety."

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