Pastor Terry Jones, appearing on today’s morning shows, says he will not be burning Korans on Saturday even though the imam of a planned Islamic center near Ground Zero did not agree to move his project further from the site.
“Right now, we have plans not to do it,” Jones said on Good Morning America.
But the deal that got Jones to call off the bonfire — that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of New York would move Park51 further from Ground Zero — never happened. The Florida imam who spoke with Rauf’s wife says he only got an agreement to meet with the imam to discuss relocation. Jones said today that, if that was the case, Imam Mohammad Musri lied to him.
“There is absolutely no possibility that I misunderstood,” Jones said.
It is unclear whether Jones will meet with Rauf tomorrow or what he will do if the imam refuses, as he most likely will, to move his Islamic center.
Nonetheless, Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere have begun demonstrating.
In Faizabad, 10,000 people poured into the streets after services to protest. Some rushed a German NATO base nearby, throwing stones at officers; one protester was reportedly shot dead.
The AP reports that 11 people have been injured in protests in Afghanistan.
One cleric told Reuters, “If they do this, we will attack American bases and close the highway used by convoys supplying American troops.”
Protesters also gathered in Pakistan to shout anti-American slogans.
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