Ron Paul Blasts Terry Jones' Plan to Burn Qurans on 9/11

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and possibly may run again in 2012, issued a strong statement on Tuesday taking aim at an event led by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville to burn Qurans on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

A professed Christian pastor in Gainesville, Fla., Terry Jones, plans to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11, said Paul. He indicts all Islam for 9/11 and argues that it is a hate-driven religion. Hes convinced hes on Gods side even though he is getting little support from other Christians, who believe that Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

While he agreed with comments from Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Afghanistan, that the burnings would increase the danger to American troops serving in the Middle East, Paul used the occasion to weigh in on American foreign policy.

This blame of all Muslims for the atrocities of 9/11 only makes things worse -- especially since it wasnt the Taliban of Afghanistan that committed the atrocities on 9/11, said Paul. Under Jones warped logic, we should have attacked Saudi Arabia since 15 of the 19 suicide bombers came from that country.

But while I am pleased to see General Petraeus recognize the danger of one type of incitement, he unfortunately fails to see the whole picture and understand that our policies of torture, targeted assassination, invasion of Muslim countries and unintended infliction of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are also provocative, added Paul, who made his critique of American foreign policy one of the cornerstones of his presidential bid back in 2008. Pictures of victims of torture as well as innocent people killed by drones and stray bombs are every bit as bad as burning the Quran.

In some ways, what Jones is doing may be minor compared to the resentment toward us as a consequence of what our government has done to thousands of innocent victims, continued Paul. As I have said time and time again, Osama bin Laden wins by proving that America is an enemy of Islam and has an occupation agenda in the Middle East. And, we continue to walk into his trap and hand him up his best recruitment tool in his efforts to provoke hatred and terrorism against the United States.

If we dont want to incite radical Islamists, we need to stop these unneeded wars, concluded Paul. It is high time we came to our senses, brought our troops home to defend our country and pursued a constitutional, pro-American foreign policy.