Congresswoman Waters, Religious & Elected Leaders Stand Up for Religious Tolerance, Denounce Bigotry

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35) joined Los Angeles-area religious and elected leaders at a press conference today at the First AME Church, where together they called on Pastor Terry Jones to keep his pledge to not burn the Quran – the Islamic holy book – tomorrow on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Below are the Congresswoman's remarks as prepared for delivery:

"I am here this morning with local elected and religious leaders to speak up and speak out not only about Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones and his offensive plan to burn copies of the holy book of a major world religion, but also about the need for greater interfaith understanding, dialogue and tolerance here at home and around the world.

I was absolutely shocked to learn about this pastor of a small, extremist congregation in Florida and his plan to destroy copies of the Quran tomorrow, the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed 3,000 Americans, international citizens, and people of many faiths and backgrounds. What is worse – the excessive media coverage gave Pastor Jones the soap box he craved, and helped make this an international crisis surrounding a day meant for personal and national remembrance and solidarity.

His recent misleading statements about the planned burning, the conversations with government and religious representatives, the trip to New York, and the alleged deal to move the Islamic community center, only serve to confuse the public and further promote the desecration of Islam, and quite frankly, all world religions.

American citizens – particularly our brave men and women deployed and working overseas – have no doubt been put in an unsafe position because of the fallout from Pastor Jones. We have already seen images of American flags being burned in direct correlation to these events out of Florida. Some international protestors have even been killed.

The whole thing is divisive, it is confrontational, and it has no place in decent society. I urge Pastor Jones, who just today said he is "seriously, seriously, seriously considering not burning the Quran" to immediately and indefinitely cancel any plan to destroy copies of the Quran.

But this is not just about Pastor Jones, or the Islamic community center in New York, or the Quran – this is fundamentally about who we are as a people.

In human history, freedom has not been something easily earned, or easily maintained. But from the penning of the Constitution well over 200 years ago, religious freedom and tolerance were etched into the psyche of the American people.

Billions of people around the world are watching us – the freest, most democratic and diverse country on the face of the planet.

As members of the media, I hope you will take the hundreds of thousands of messages of diversity, hope, peace, tolerance, understanding, and freedom emanating from all corners of our great country and share them with the world.

Let them know that our government, military and religious leaders – people like President Barack Obama, Secretaries Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton, General David Petraeus  – and the larger American citizenry – Blacks and Whites, Young and Old, Republicans and Democrats, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and others – are coming together and unequivocally denouncing not just Pastor Jones' actions, but any attacks on or acts of violence against peaceful, historic, world religions and the millions, if not billions, of people who identify with them.

I want to thank you for being here today, and to now turn over the microphone to some of our other guests so we can continue to say ‘no' to bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance and ‘yes' to interfaith understanding, multiculturalism, and the values that bind us as a nation.

Thank you."

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