New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg defended on Tuesday Florida pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, saying that the pastor has “every right to burn the sacred books – even though he finds it distasteful.”

Bloomberg said, “In a strange way, I’m here to defend his right to do that. I happen to think that it is distasteful… The First Amendment protects everybody, and you can’t say that we’re going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement.”

“If you want to be able to say what you want to say when the time comes that you want to say it, you have to defend others, no matter how, how much you disagree with them,” he added.

Pastor Jones’ plan to burn copies of Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks had already sparked protests in Afghanistan.

General David Petraeus of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan had expressed his disagreement with the planned rally. “It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan. Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult.”

However, Jones said he and his church members have already made up their minds about the rally on Saturday. He explained that it is “aimed at the radical Muslims, not moderate Muslims. Our message is a message of waning to the radical element of Islam.”

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