US gov't is anti-Islam - Ayatollah Khatami

"The world must know that the United States is an anti-Islam government," Tehran's provisional Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said on Friday. Ayatollah Khatami referred to the desecration of the holy Qur'an by US occupying forces in Afghanistan and said, "on the basis of some reports, the Americans collected and burned the copies of the holy Koran intentionally." The prayer leader said the move is a terrible crime, adding, "It was as if they (US troops) burned all Muslims because the holy Qur'an is the Muslims' life." Ayatollah Khatami appreciated the reaction of the Muslim population in Afghanistan and said, "The Afghans' reaction proves their religious dignity." Ayatollah Khatami also pointed to apologies made by US president and head of American troops in Bagram base and said, "These apologies are facial because the move was intentional." On February 21, reports emerged that the US troops had burned a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Qur’ans at the Bagram Airbase, located 11 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the city of Charikar in Afghanistan's Parwan Province. "The US administration has grudge against Islam and their continuous troublemaking against the Islamic system stems from the same reality," Ayatollah Khatami added. Ayatollah Khatami then harshly slammed the silence of certain Arab governments in the case and said those who consider themselves as servants of the Holy Sites but massacre the oppressed people of Bahrain and keep friendly ties with the US authorities are accomplices in the Koran burning crime.