Amid the global outrage over a threat by a Florida-based pastor to burn the Koran, president Barack Obama today called on Americans to observe religious tolerance, saying the idea to burn the sacred text of another religion is contrary to American values.
"We have to make sure that we don't start turning on each other," Obama said at a White House news conference on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The president's remarks came at the end of a week that sparked a global outcry after Terry Jones from a small church in Gainesville threatened to burn copies of Korans on the September 11 anniversary, and an angry debate over a plan to build an Islamic centre with a mosque near the World Trade Centre site of the attacks in New York.
"Let me repeat again what I've said earlier. The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else's religion is contrary to what this country stands for...We are seeing today riots in Afghanistan, which threaten our men and women in uniform..," he said.
"Such an act would provide more recruitment to the Al-Qaeda. It is a way of endangering our troops who are sacrificing their lives to keep us safe. We don't play games with them. This act can cause us profound damage and we need to take care," he said at the White House press conference.
He underlined his determination to "do everything" to remind the people that we are one nation under God and we may call that god different names.
"And I will do everything that I can as long as I'm president of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God and we may call that god different names, but we remain one nation," he said.
Obama today asked American people to observe religious tolerance, following a spate of controversies over Islam's place in US society.
