Thread: Koran burning canceled, now back on?

Imam Denies Deal With Pastor Over Ground Zero

Imam Abdul Rauf of 'Ground Zero' Mosque contradicts Pastor Terry Jones' claims.
09/09/2010
Related Links:
WATCH: Did Media Feed Koran Book-Burning Frenzy?
WATCH: Koran Burning Called Off Amid Questions
WATCH: Pastor Calls for Koran Burning on 9/11
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VIDEOS @

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/pastor- ... m-11597932

Quran burning on again? Florida pastor says maybe

'Back to square one,' Jones says after imam denies there's a deal to move NYC Islamic center

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 18 minutes ago

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida pastor whose plan to burn Qurans on Sept. 11 generated worldwide outrage among Muslims and pressure by the U.S. government to relent said late Thursday that he might not call off the protest after all.

Pastor Terry Jones told NBC News that "we are a little back to square one" after a supposed deal involving a proposed Islamic cultural center in New York evaporated.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Jones had said he was canceling the Quran burning because a Muslim imam had assured him that the proposed Islamic center could be moved away from the World Trade
Center site in return.

But the imam proposing to build the Islamic center near the World Trade Center denied that a deal had been struck to move the project.

"I am glad that Pastor Jones has decided not to burn any Qurans," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said in a statement. "However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri (of Florida). I am surprised by their announcement. We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony."

After that statement, Jones said the Quran burning had only been suspended.

"Given what we are now hearing, we are forced to rethink our decision," Jones said. "So as of right now, we are not canceling the event, but we are suspending it."

Jones wouldn't say if the church would burn Qurans but said "I'm praying" to decide what to do next.

At Jones' first press conference, he appeared with Imam Muhammad Musri of the Islamic Society of Central Florida and said that Musri had told him that the mosque would be moved.

Related content
Updated 18 minutes ago Quran burning on again? Pastor says maybe

"We are canceling the event because we have agreed, I take him at his word, he has agreed to move the Ground Zero mosque," Jones said. "I verified that three or four times with witnesses. I trust that man who gave me that. I believe he is a man of integrity, a man of his word, I do not believe that he lied to me."

Musri thanked Jones and his church members "for making the decision today to defuse the situation and bring to a positive end what has become the world over a spectacle that no one would benefit from except extremists and terrorists."

But later on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," Musri said that Jones was wrong about what he had said about the mosque. He said what he offered was a meeting among Jones, the New York imam and himself to talk about moving the mosque if Jones agreed to cancel the Quran burning.

Musri said that he had told Jones that with the ending of the Ramadan holiday, Muslims around the world would be praying at mosques and radical clerics might exploit the Quran burning to foment hatred against Americans. Musri said he told Jones that "time was of the essence" if he was going to cancel the burning.

Video: Quran-burning pastor in confused shambles (on this page)

"I told him clearly I am not in any way connected to the event in New York.

I have no control over it. I cannot promise you that it will be moved. But my position is for it to be relocated to a more ideal somewhere we can avoid the controversy that's going on on that site."

Musri said he told Jones he was willing to go to New York to advocate for such a move and that Jones clearly understood there was no deal.
But after the statements by the New York imam and Musri, Jones said they "clearly, clearly lied to us" about moving the mosque.

Jones had been under pressure from the U.S. government to cancel the protest. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Gen. David Petraeus and others had warned that the protest could bring attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Earlier Thursday, Obama implored Jones to call off his Quran-burning "stunt," telling ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes Jones listens to "those better angels."

"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," Obama said.

Jones, leader of a small Pentecostal church with about 30 members in Gainesville, had been planning to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida," Obama said of the planned burning. "You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan." The president also said Jones' plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals "to blow themselves up" to kill others.

Video: Quran-burning pastor in confused shambles (on this page)

Jones had said that a call from the Pentagon, State Department or White House might make him reconsider his plan.

On Thursday, Jones said Pentagon chief Robert Gates had called him to urge he back off.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed the call took place.

"They had a very brief conversation during which he expressed to the pastor his grave concern that going forward would put lives at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he urged him not to proceed with it," Morrell said.

The decision for Gates to make the call was a "collective" one, according to Morrell, but he did not elaborate.

"If that phone call could potentially save the life of one man or woman in uniform then it is a call worth placing," he said.

Video: He's delusional and dangerous, 'Hardball' panel says (on this page)

Obama has gotten caught up in the burgeoning controversy surrounding the practice of Islam in America, saying at one point that he believed that Muslims had a right to build a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City.

The State Department is cautioning Americans worldwide that there is a "high potential" for violent anti-American demonstrations if the church goes through with its plans. Officials noted that demonstrations have already been reported in Afghanistan and Indonesia and they urged Americans abroad to avoid areas where protesters might gather.

NBC News' Kerry Sanders and Courtney Kube contributed to this article, which includes reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39074573/ns/us_news-security/

You know what I think? I think the Goobermint from Mayors to Presidents to Generals should do their jobs, like run a city, balance a budget, win a war, etc., etc., etc. and leave Americans and their free speech rights alone.

They're already burning our flags. They've already committed the worst crime in US history. They've already been the cause of two wars.

If Jones wants to burn some books, that's his right.

Is it illegal to burn the bible?

Aug 22, 2010 ...

It is not against any laws in the United States to burn the Bible.

www.chacha.com/question/is-it-illegal-to-burn-the-bible

http://www.ocala.com/article/2010090...f-Dove-doesn-t

Westboro Baptist Church, the small Topeka, Kan., church that pickets funerals of American soldiers to spread its message that God is punishing the country for being tolerant of homosexuals, has vowed to hold a Quran burning if Gainesville's Dove World Outreach Center calls its off.

WBC burned the Koran once – and if you sissy brats of Doomed america bully Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center until they change their plans to burn that blasphemous tripe called the Koran, then WBC will burn it (again), to clearly show you some things," the church announced in a news release this week.

Lotta pissed off people. In this article, Terry states that he feels that the Imom lied to him about moving the GZ mosk.

Islamists are making threats against America if the pastor burns the koran! Screw them!. They are holding America hostgage to their plans of taking over and setting up Sharia law. IMO Korans teach evilness anyway so there no loss if they are destroyed. The Koran was written by on man and it is LAW not a religion. It may start with a few peaceful passages, but it ends with hatefulness and jihad against anyone who isnt a Muslim. I am tired of "political correctness" crap because it is destroying our country. If they cant abide by our laws, THEN GET THEM OUT!

This is probably the best explanation for all this that is happening:

At the dawn of man, civilization was ... the biggest and the strongest. And that's as far as we were gonna go. It was whoever was the biggest, they killed and ate anything they wanted. That was it! Civilization was a huge psychopath with a club goin', "I'm gonna have rape fer dinner." That was it! That's as far as we were gonna go!

And then, one of my ancestors, some weakling, said, "Look, there's no way I can beat that guy. But what if I trick him into thinking that if he doesn't kill and rape people while he's down here, when he dies, there's a magic city in the clouds, and he can go up and have all the cake he wants?!"

Now, that's not a very well-formed plan, but he went and told the big psycho, and the psycho heard that, and said, "Yeah, I like cake." BOOM! There ya go! That was the beginning of civilization. Now we can work on fire and writing and agriculture. That's religion! It's the old sky cake dodge. It worked!

But ... and, by the way, things were great for awhile. But then, what was happening was, that this was going on all over the planet. Then we just used different desserts. They would tell 'em about sky cookies or sky pie or sky baklava. So, as each of these civilizations grew, they built ships, they'd go visit each other, and the one guy would walk off the boat and go, "Hey, did ya hear the good news about the sky baklava?" And the first guy went, "IT'S CAKE, MFer, YER DEAD!"

And then, oh my God, there were the Dessert Wars, it was a nightmare. They were just killin' people. It got so bad that, every now and then, some dude would show up and go, "Hey, got good news! There's cake and pie and cookies, for EVERYONE, we can all share!" And people said, "NAIL HIM TO A CROSS! IT IS ONLY CAKE! OH MY GOD! THE ONLY WAY SKY CAKE TASTES GOOD IS IF, UP IN THE ... SKY, THE SKY COOKIE AND SKY PIE PEOPLE CAN'T HAVE THE SKY PIE! THAT'S THE ONLY WAY SKY CAKE TASTES GOOD! I DID NOT SPEND MY LIFE NOT RAPING AND KILLING PEOPLE TO NOT GO UP IN THE SKY AND HAVE ... CAKE!

SKY CAKE!"

So the next time you see some in front of an abortion clinic, or trying to ban a Harry Potter novel, just go, "Oh, Sky Cake. Why are you so delicious?!"

Just so you know, sky cake tastes the same as sky baklava.

I heard of "Lucy is the Sky with Diamonds" and now there's CAKE too?

Sep 10, 2010

Who knew? Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh were high school classmates

09:55

Politics Daily tips us that Terry Jones, the would-be Quran-burning preacher, and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh both attended the same high school in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1969.

The high school website is up with photos from their 1969 yearbook, and comments from classmates.

It also notes that Jones was a pitcher for the Tigers baseball team.

Nobody is suggesting any political or ideological connection between the pair.

Here's how the high school website puts it:

Rush Limbaugh photo in the 1969 Girardeau, Mo., high school yearbook.CAPTION

Cape Girardeau High School Rush Limbaugh USED to be Cape Girardeau's most prominent export. One of his classmates from the Central High School Class of 1969 is dominating the news right now: Terry Jones, the Gainesville, FL, preacher who is threatening to hold an "International Burn a Koran Day" on September 11.

Click here to view the web site and read the class discussion.

Update and clarification at 1:53 P.M. ET: The website noted above and a similar Facebook page is run and operated by Ken Steinoff, class of 1965, who says he was a photographer for both the school yearbook and school newspaper. It is not the official school web site, rather is a site where Steinoff posts old photographs and bits of nostalgia about the Cape Central high school. He was among the first to put together the Jones-Limbaugh connection. He tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "When you have Rush Limbaugh and Terry Jones come out of the same class," Steinoff told the Post-Dispatch, "that's extraordinary."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... assmates/1

I am so glad this guy doesn't live in CA.

We have enough problems without someone making us a target for every muslim in the world.