The Vatican office responsible for relations with Islam issued a stern statement Wednesday saying that every religion has the right to respect and protect its sacred books, places of worship and symbols.
While deploring the terror attacks, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said they "cannot be counteracted by an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community."
Pastor Terry Jones of the small, evangelical Dove World Outreach Center based in Gainesville, Florida has said he would go ahead with plans to burn copies of Islam's holy book this weekend despite opposition.
The 58-year-old minister says he will stage "International Burn-a-Qur'an Day" on Sept. 11 despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off.
On Tuesday, the Obama administration warned that the preacher's plan could endanger US troops serving overseas and other Americans worldwide.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says that type of activity gets transmitted back to places like Afghanistan where US forces could be put in harm's way as a result.
The US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, says the images of a burning Qur'an would be used by extremists to inflame public opinion and incite violence.
At least 24 interfaith leaders in the Gainesville, Florida, area, near Jones' church, have planned activities to adamantly reject the Dove World's planned Qur'an burning. In a statement the leaders said: "We state clearly the act of burning the sacred scripture of Islam has no place in our faith, our religious communities, our town, or in our nation."
In Berlin, a German church that broke with Jones' sect in 2008, says it "emphatically distances" itself from the Florida-based preacher's stunt.
Stephan Baar, a leader of the Christian Community of Cologne, Germany, founded by Jones in the 1980s, said Tuesday the congregation split with him in 2008 over a dispute in the direction he was taking the church.
Baar describes Jones as a man who would follow through on anything he set his mind to, but says the German congregation was "surprised and shocked" at the "radicalism" displayed by Jones in his current campaign.
Actress Angelina Jolie on Wednesday joined the chorus against the Florida preacher's plan.
"I have hardly the words that somebody would do that to somebody's religious book," said Jolie, who is in Pakistan to raise awareness about the floods that have devastated the largely Muslim country over the last six weeks. She visited in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador for the UN's refugee agency.
