The website of the church that was planning to burn a Koran on Saturday to commemorate 9/11 was removed from the internet after its hosting service said the site violated its terms of service agreement.

Thursday's removal of the doveworld.org site comes as President Barack Obama urged the Florida pastor not to burn the Koran on the 9-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities," Obama said. Hours after Obama's plea, the pastor, Terry Jones, obliged.

The Gainesville pastor says the burning of the Muslim holy book was meant as a protest against radical Islam.

Rackspace, of San Antonio Texas and the web hosting service in question, pulled the plug on the Dove World Outreach Center's site at midnight over what it said was a terms of service breach. Its terms of service agreement prohibits using Rackpace servers if such usage "incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech."

Dan Goodgame, a Rackspace spokesman, said in a telephone interview that the company reserved the right to stop hosting Jones' "hate speech" as of Thursday morning. He said Rackspace was protecting its right not to associate and do business with Jones under the company's terms of service contract.

Jones said Rackspace's decision was an "indirect attack on our freedom of speech."

Is Rackspace's move censorship? Tell us what you think.

Photo: AP

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