The Florida pastor who threatened to burn Korans to mark 9/11 and in the process became the center of a domestic and global maelstrom said Saturday morning that he had definitively canceled the book burning because he had accomplished his mission of revealing Islam to harbor dangerous elements.I didn't think this event was going to take place (and said so in this post). Whether God told him to stand down, or common sense did, it was the right thing to do - not because I think there's anything particularly holy about the Koran, but because I thought all along this was a foolishly provocative act.
"Not today, not ever. We are not going to go back and do it" -- burn the Koran. "It is totally canceled," Pastor Terry Jones told NBC's "Today" show.
Jones had traveled to New York late Friday night following several days of often bizarre brinkmanship as he suddenly made moving the controversy-plagued Islamic center planned near Ground Zero a condition of his canceling the Koran-burning ritual, which was originally set for 6 p.m. Saturday on the grounds of his small, fundamentalist Gainesville church.
Jones told NBC that he came to New York hoping to meet with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the Cordoba Initiative that is planning to build the center, but had no meeting scheduled.
He said that while he hoped to meet Rauf and convince him to move the mosque, he felt his threats to burn some 200 copies of the Koran had fulfilled his goal and that God was telling him to stand down.
"We feel when we started this out that one of our reasons was to show, to expose that there is an element in Islam that is very dangerous and very radical," Jones said. "I believe that we have definitely accomplished that mission."
Jones said the fact that he has received more than 100 death threats without yet burning a Koran, Islam's sacred text, was proof of his views.
Yes, he did show yet again that there are radical elements within Islam, but that isn't exactly news. We known that for a couple of decades now. We didn't need a Florida pastor of a 50 member church to teach us. However, there are a lot of people who still can't seem to get their heads around the idea that simply threatening to burn a book can cause millions of Muslims to go nuts.
Perhaps there was a small amount of value in this whole publicity stunt.
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Islam has been showing it's true colors for 1400 years, not just a couple of decades. The only difference from the time of the Crusades is that Islam has a lot of money. And that's the fault of our leaders, and the corporatists that pull their puppet strings. There's no reason we should be in need that oil. But we have been handcuffed by Enviro-whackos, who unwittingly have lined the pockets of elitists who have allegiance to no nation. No, their allegiance is to any tool, group or tactic that will enhance their net worth.
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