“The minority Christian communities in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, other places around the world where extremism is often used as a weapon against American interests and Christian interests, Christians are very vulnerable in those situations,” said Carl Moeller.  “So, our concerns really stem from not a religious liberty issue, we certainly have the right to do whatever we would like to do on a free speech or religious liberty basis here in America.  But, what we have to take into consideration, and what I think this church has failed to take into consideration, is the impact of our actions on others.  And, in this case, the others represent Christians living throughout the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world.”

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has been advertising an event it calls International Burn a Quran Day.  The small Christian church is planning to hold the event on September 11th, in part to honor those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The church's leader, Terry Jones, has said the burning of the Quran sends a message to violent Islamic extremists like al-Qaida, which carried out the attacks against the United States.

Moeller said the Christian communities in many Muslim countries have, in the past, been targets of discrimination.

“They have already become targets of some other perceived slights to Islam like the Danish cartoons of a few years ago.  It wasn’t Danish cartoonists that were burned or set on by mobs, but it was churches and pastors and Christians in the local area that those mobs turned on,” said Moeller.

The president of Open Doors, a ministry that works in 60 countries to strengthen Christian minorities through community development, Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and education and prayer and advocacy ministry, said actions such as the one planned by the Florida church can be used to bring Christians in other countries under a great deal of suffering.