Alyssa and Angelina oppose desecration of Quran

Jolie said she had “hardly the words” to express her opposition to burning someone’s religious text.

ISLAMABAD: Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie on Wednesday joined a growing chorus of opposition to plans by a US pastor to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, amid fears it would fan religious hatred.

The Quran-torching event on Saturday planned by Pastor Terry Jones, who heads a tiny, little-known church in Florida, is fuelling growing fears about heightened Christian-Muslim tensions in the United States as well as elsewhere in the world.

Oscar-winning Jolie, who is visiting Pakistan to highlight the plight of millions of people devastated by the country’s worst-ever floods, said she would never support any such plans.

“Of course not. Of course not,” she told a news conference when asked if she supported Jones’ plans.

She said she had “hardly the words” to express her opposition to burning someone’s religious text.

She hailed the US government’s opposition to the plans, which have already triggered angry protests in Afghanistan, where US troops are fighting Taliban militants.

Jolie is not the only US celebrity condemning the planned burning. American actor and former singer Alyssa Milano has also opposed the idea on her Twitter page. “Dear Crazy Pastor, who wants to burn the Quran, what page is this idea on in the Bible? With blessings, Sane People,” Milano wrote on the microblogging site two days back.

Leaving behind the glamour of the red carpet, and instead walking on rubble, Angelina Jolie is in Pakistan, visiting victims from the floods that left a fifth of the country covered by water and around 17 million people affected. The Hollywood actor who last month announced her plans for the UN sponsored trip, is trying to drum up more support for Pakistan’s over six million made homeless by the disaster:

Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR - the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She last visited Pakistan in 2005 after a devastating earthquake swept the northern part of the country then.

With additional information by the News Desk

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th,  2010.