News24 said Judge Sita Kolbe granted an urgent interdict to stop businessman Mohammed Vawda from carrying out his threat to publicly burn the Bible in protest against a plan by Pastor Terry Jones to burn the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Attorney Zehir Omar said of the judge’s finding:
“The judge agreed that freedom of expression is not unlimited if one exercises freedom of expression that is harmful to others."
Vawda, the businessman, explained that Jones’ actions had angered him. He said:
"His actions infuriated me and incited me and enraged me. I decided to act against him and his actions by burning his book."
Once Vawda heard parts of the Koran which spoke out in favour of respecting both the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah, he realised he had made a mistake. He said:
"I then understood."
He remained put out by the possibility that Jones would be allowed to burn Korans:
"But I still think if the applicant could do this to me, how come nobody in America didn't take similar action. We hosted the World Cup, they came here and saw our country, maybe now they can take a lesson from us."
Omar, the attorney, commented on the fact that apparently no similar legal action had taken place in the US according to the
Sydney Morning Herald:
"Had the Americans done the same thing, they could have saved the damage to their own international repute, which is already tarnished."
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council has called on Pastor Jones to find out more about the contents of the Koran before burning it.
