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Cincinnati Enquirer: Former Ky. AUSA to Baker Hostetler

By Leah Nylen

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that a Florida pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 is idiotic and dangerous, according to The Associated Press and CBS News.

Attorney General Eric Holder (file photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

The remarks came at a closed-door meeting at the Justice Department between the Attorney General and Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders. They spoke for almost an hour about what the Justice Department is doing to combat hate crimes directed toward religious groups.

Fear of possible violence against American Muslims has escalated since news broke this summer that a Muslim community center and mosque is slated for construction near Ground Zero in New York. Heightening concern, Rev. Terry Jones intends to torch copies of the Quran at his Gainesville, Fla., church on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, which falls this year near a Muslim holiday marking the end of the religion’s holy month of Ramadan.

Holder said the burning was foolish, but was quoting Gen. David Petraeus when he said the pastor’s intentions were perilous, according to the news report. Petraeus previously said the torching could harm U.S. soldiers.

DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller did not mention Holder’s comments in a statement on Tuesday night.

?As the Attorney General has noted on previous occasions, violence against individuals or institutions based on religious bias is intolerable and the Department will bring anyone who commits such crimes to justice,” Miller said in the statement. “Americans of every faith have the right to worship and practice their religion in peace, and the Department will continue to work with its state and local partners to ensure that this right is upheld.”

Full post as published by Main Justice on September 08, 2010 (boomark / email).