FLORIDA, January 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Mandarin church pastor in Florida said that he was launching a website to show why he believes Islam is a violent religion, a U.S. newspaper reported Monday, January 20.

Rev. Gene Youngblood’s statement came one day after a group of Southern Baptist missionaries working in Muslim countries asked the U.S. leaders of their denomination to tone down their harsh criticism of Islam.

The Florida Times-Union reported Monday that Youngblood said he received dozens of supportive calls and notes after posting a sign saying that Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) “endorsed murder in the Qur’an”, the paper reported.

The sign at First Conservative Baptist Church read “Jesus Forbade Murder Matthew 26-52 Muhammad Approved Murder Surah 8-65.”

The paper quoted Youngblood saying that he received about three dozens calls, notes and e-mails, all but five supporting him adding that he is in the process of preparing a Web site with video, news and a section for ordering books.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the church’s sign misrepresented Muslim teachings, and the passage it mentioned was about soldiers in war.

The subject is expected to be discussed more this next week with members of the Interfaith Council of Jacksonville, an organization involving many local churches, said Parvez Ahmed, a Council on American-Islamic Relations member in Jacksonville.

He said some churches sent private messages of support, along with a few dozen Muslims and Christians.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there already are Web sites like Youngblood plans.

“He’ll join a hundred others that are out there,” Hooper said. “It’s not going to be something new that he’s adding to the debate about Islam. There’s plenty of hate out there.”

The Boston Globe, on Sunday, January 19, said that two dozen missionaries, who are working in 10 countries in the Mideast, North Africa, East Africa and South Asia, said in a statement that denigrating Islam “puts them at risk as they work to spread Christianity under dangerous conditions overseas”.

“We are not sure if you are aware of the ramifications that comments that malign Islam and Muhammad have - not only on the message of the gospel but also upon the lives of our families as we are living in the midst of already tense times,” the missionaries said in the January 10 letter, reported the Globe.

The statement was signed by “a group of Southern Baptists serving in the Muslim world,” who did not give their names, the paper added.