A Florida pastor suspended plans to burn hundreds of Korans, but the move failed to stem a tide of Muslim outrage around the world as he warned the torching ceremony could yet take place.
Radical evangelist Terry Jones first announced on Thursday he had canceled today’s torching ceremony, which world leaders fear could ignite a Muslim backlash, but when his claims that a deal had been struck to relocate a proposed Islamic cultural center in New York with Orlando-based imam Mohammed Musri dissolved in acrimony, he threatened to go ahead with the event to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“I will be flying up there on Saturday to meet with the imam at the Ground Zero mosque,” Jones said initially. “The American people do not want the mosque there and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran.”
Those behind the New York project, which is a building two and a half blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center struck down by Sept. 11 hijackers, quickly denied any agreement.
“We don’t know anything about it,” said Daisy Khan, one of its main promoters and the wife of Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the project.
Jones, whose tiny Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has a congregation of only 50, had cast himself as having single-handedly resolved the standoff thanks to his threat to desecrate the Koran, but later, once Rauf denied any bargain, Jones resurrected the specter of the burning if no deal is done.
“We would be forced to rethink our decision, because we canceled it based upon his [Musri’s] word,” Jones said.
Initial relief at Jones’ apparent retreat turned to dismay when he renewed his threat and the supposed deal with Rauf unraveled.
Musri, who played the role of go-between in setting up Saturday’s meeting, said he had made it abundantly clear to Jones that he could provide no assurances about the Islamic cultural center project.
“What we agreed is, we had a commitment from the office of the imam in New York to set up a meeting and to invite pastor Jones to present this proposal,” Musri told CNN. “We did not have an agreement from them, from the imam himself or anyone in his office, that the project will be moved or canceled in New York.”
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