Posted on 09/11/2010 8:36:50 AM PDT by Qbert
Florida pastor Terry Jones said Saturday that he would never carry out plans to burn copies of the Quran, according to NBC.
Jones had planned to burn the Muslim holy text on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but now says he’ll never go through with it.
"We will definitely not burn the Quran, no,” he said in an interview with the “Today” show in New York. “Not today, not ever.”
Jones said he would refrain from Quran-burning even if a proposed Islamic community center and mosque is built near Ground Zero, according to NBC. Jones heads a small church in Gainesville called the Dove World Outreach Center.
The pastor’s plan drew warnings from top military officials and President Barack Obama that burning the Quran would endanger the lives of U.S. service members. Obama criticized the plan during a press conference Friday.
“The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for. It’s contrary to what this country, this nation was founded on,” Obama said. “We’ve got an obligation to send a very clear message that this kind of behavior or threats of action put our young men and women in harm’s way. And it’s also the best imaginable recruiting tool for al Qaeda,” he added.
Jones is seeking a meeting with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who heads the Cordoba Initiative that’s proposing the Islamic center, but said nothing has been set up, according to NBC.
Jones told the network that his goal was to “expose” that there is “very dangerous and very radical” element to Islam, and claimed, “we have definitely accomplished that mission.”
I wonder if Pastor Jones got a serious threat against his life or his family and I wonder who that threat might have come from, the imam or the government or the government imam.
my money is on publicity whore who got his 15 minutes
Probably. But hey -- to have burned Korans would have been uncivil. And we can't have that, can we?
More than likely they convinced him that American soldiers' lives would DEFINITELY be lost as a direct result of his actions.
Very good that he backed down.
Sad to see he backed down. I gtuess the pressure of muslimes, liberals and pseudo conservative pundits all taking the muslims’s side against his constitutional rights and siding with the muslims and their threats of violence must have been too much for him.
We should probably get used to it, cause that’s how it is in shariamerica today.
I’m betting the CIA put the thumb screws on him. And convinced him that his family would be at risk if he ever reneged.
Did anyone else publicly burn the Koran??
He probably has family. Or, his parishoners do.
A non-ending to a non-story.
You say that like there is a great deal of difference between the two.
I don't see it.
Consider the possibility that he was persuaded by Sarah Palin's suggestion that he stand down.
Consider the possibility that he was persuaded by Sarah Palin's suggestion that he stand down.
“You say that like there is a great deal of difference between the two.
I don’t see it.”
Hey, I was just being the messenger!
LOL
Bring them on. I am not afraid of them and they will have a hard time lynching me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.