The protesters, mostly students from religious schools, gathered outside Kabul's Milad ul-Nabi mosque to condemn plans by the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre to burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks against the United States.

"We call on America to stop desecrating our Holy Koran," student Wahidullah Nori told Reuters. He said the street protests condemning the church would continue "every day."

U.S. President Barack Obama has made efforts to reach out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims since taking office last year, most recently hosting Muslim leaders at the White House at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in August.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said the "United States government in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam, and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

"Americans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds reject this offensive initiative by this small group in Florida, a great number of American voices are protesting the hurtful statements made by this organisation," it said in a statement.

A proposal to build an Islamic centre and mosque two blocks from the site of the worst of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York has stirred heated debate in the United States.

Opponents of the plan say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda.

U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan soon after those attacks for harbouring al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

Demonstrations and riots triggered by reported desecration of the Koran are not infrequent in Afghanistan. The most violent protests came after cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

In January this year, Afghan troops shot dead eight demonstrators and wounded 13 in southern Helmand province in a riot triggered by reports that foreign troops had desecrated the Koran during a raid. A spokesman for NATO forces denied the report.

(Writing by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Paul Tait)

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Philosophically, I am against book burning. Throughout history, the only instances of book burning have been by hateful, ignorant barbarians like the Nazis and the Taliban, as shown above. The little Florida church is not, in my opinion, showing a proper Christian spirit in burning the Koran.

It would be much better if they were able to strike an accommodation with the Muslims rather than to desecrate their Holy Koran. Think how much more beneficial it would be if the little church were able to prevail on all the Islamic assholes to stop desecrating our Holy American Soil and return to the shithole third-world cesspools they came from, taking with them POTUS and the Attorney General and all the ex-convicts who converted to the "religion of peace" in the "big house".

Now, wouldn't that be a much nicer outcome than burning the mad ravings of the pedophile Mohammed (piss be upon him)?

  
Allahu Akbar