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Terry Jones Cancels Koran Burning, but NYC Mosque Move Disputed

1 year ago
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After sparking an international outcry, Florida Pastor Terry Jones said Thursday he will cancel his plans to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

During a late afternoon news conference, Jones said he decided to scrap the planned event after the imam behind a planned Islamic community center near Manhattan's ground zero, Abdul Feisal Rauf, had agreed to move the project to another site. Jones said the two would be meeting later in the week.

Reuters news agency, however, reported that the pastor's claim that the mosque would be relocated was false, and that no deal is in place.

Rauf said in a statement obtained by The New York Times that he had not spoken to Jones or Muhammad Musri, the Florida imam who has been acting as a mediator for Jones.

Jones had said earlier that he would cancel the event if he were to receive contact directly from the White House or the Defense Department.

The Pentagon later confirmed to The Associated Press that Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones Thursday. Press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates expressed "his grave concern" that the burning of the holy book of Islam would put the lives of U.S. troops at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Morrell would not characterize Jones' response.

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Religion, Terror
Tagged: dailyguidance

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13 Comments

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Mohamed

my follow good u.s. citizen please do not listen to dirty political groups and thier dirty media . please some respect for our u.s muslims army who protectiong you right now here and overseas. thank you we love you our u.s.muslims soldiers with all your partners .

September 11 2010 at 6:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mohamed

please our lovely u.s. citizens respect your muslims in u.s. army who protecting you right now here and overseas . stop this dirty political groups practise with their dirty media. we love our u.s.muslims army .we love all our army. shame of you mr.jones

September 11 2010 at 6:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Reddog

Come on Pastor Jones, go for it. Burn the koran but burn them in front of a mosque. If the muslimes try and stop you, it is a violation of freedom of speech. Just be prepared to defend yourselves. Shoot first and fill out the paper work later. This is the USA, the muslimes now have to abide by our rules. If they don't like it, then they can go build their terrorist mosque in the Sahara desert, where they all belong, anyways.

September 10 2010 at 11:07 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
hgreenwitch

Iheard on the radio that if Jones burned the Koran the Muslims were going to kill our children.this radio personnel wanted to know why the news wasn't reporting that,well if anyone of importance is reading this.please take your aggression out on the person doing the horrible deed.just because we have free speech in this country doesn't mean we all agree with what he is doing.i think he should be punished for even threatening to do such a horrible thing.just because we have the freedom to do these things certainly does not mean we should.how would he like it if muslims and the Jewish started burning the bible.

September 10 2010 at 1:22 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
cssimi

OK Mr. Jones, your 15 minutes are up... Bye Bye..

September 09 2010 at 9:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dc walker

...this pastor has a congregation of less than fifty families and yet he and the other religious thunderheads in the mid east are ready to start WW3...

September 09 2010 at 7:40 PM Report abuse +4 rate up rate down Reply
tsunamicoming

Obama backs the Ground Zero Mosgue and Inman. Obama hires Inman at the US Taxpayers expense to fly around the world for WHAT? Who is Inman really representing? Inman will NOT condemn HAMAS. Next, Obama calls and tells this minister to NOT burn the Koran. If OBAMA thinks the US CITIZENS are still that STUPID to believe his GARBAGE; THEN, HE is in for a RUDE AWAKENING. This is beyond conception....Mosque--Inman--Hamas--Obama--Koran all circling around OBAMA again.

September 09 2010 at 6:33 PM Report abuse +10 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to tsunamicoming's comment
dc walker

....since women won't be praying with men this is what kind of a community center???

September 09 2010 at 7:41 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
doowat

As the previous poster said, the mosque being built in the interest of "National Security" is a bunch of bull. To hold us over the proverbial 'barrel' with what boils down to a threat is disgusting and should be looked in to. Since when does a imam get to dictate what we NEED to do in the interest of our security? Does he know something we don't? Or is he simply confirming that the agenda is for us to live in fear of the "extremists" and have to conform to their wants and their needs OR ELSE? I have a real problem with his comments, and personally think that in would be in the "interest of our National Security" to check into exactly who is involved in the building of this mosque, what is the purpose, why RIGHT THERE on top of Ground Zero, and why is it necessary to threaten us with the fear of more attacks when Mr. Imam COULD take yet another tax-payer funded trip to the middle east and explain to THEM why WE are offended at the demands being thrown at us. Why is it WE have to explain ourselves and our actions and our feelings while they simply fly under the radar with the blessings of the president of the United States? Am I missing something here?

September 09 2010 at 6:29 PM Report abuse +6 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to doowat's comment
bpdarling

Maybe you wuold not be so "offended" if you were knowledgeable of what the strcture actually is. It is a COMMUNITY CENTER, which will house prayer areas for muslims, christians, jews, and other faiths as well. This building will be MULTI CULTURAL. The owners don;t need to justify anything to anyone. They have the required building permits. You're certainly free to be offended, but they have the right to build wherever they want, which is the same right YOU have to build as well. You ARE missing something here....what you are trying to do is connect two dots that are not even in the same coloring book, much less on the same page. 20 radicals on 9-11 do NOT make the entire muslim polulation of well over a BILLION people our mortal enemies. That is the connection you are trying to make, and it is WRONG>>>>>>and DISCONNECTED!

September 09 2010 at 6:48 PM Report abuse -4 rate up rate down Reply
canterbrook

Thank God that sanity has prevailed, that act of hatred would have only perpetuated the hate cycle,and proven to the muslim world that what some of their radical extremists are right. Those who proposed burning the Quran or agreed with it , have no idea what this action could have started,It would have blown our right to religious freedom right out of the water . In this precious country of ours we can worship the God of our choice,even if that god were a telephone pole, and we would not be arrested for doing so. ... As a Korean War Veteran I and many others served there to help guarantee our precious freedoms, which in all common sense we should not abuse by taking actions like burning the Quran, or any other Book of Scripture.

September 09 2010 at 6:25 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
psug20

where

September 09 2010 at 5:41 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply

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