Would you trust this man to be your pastor and spiritual advisor? Not if you are a Muslim. Probably not unless you were a brain dead southern bigot. Meet the Right Reverend Terry Jones, self-proclaimed pastor of a tiny Pentacostal church in Florida, who is an avowed hater of Islam and Muslims.
To demonstrate his hatred of Islam and its followers he scheduled a special "prayer day," on Sep. 11, the anniversary of the World Trade Center destruction, to burn a stack of Korans, the Bible of the Muslim faith. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a Koran for a Bible.
As part of his 15 minutes of infamy, the Right Reverend was persuaded by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in a personal phone call, to cancel his book burning. The heavily mustached minister with the stand-up crew cut hair had refused all previous entreaties to call off his "show." Quoting grammatically incorrect scripture, Jones said God didn't approve of Muslims and he was God's emissary in Florida.
Bullying himself further into the NYC Mosque controversy, an issue about which he is totally ignorant and unqualified to comment, Jones now says he wants to meet personally with the Iman who heads the Mosque construction effort, no doubt for a "friendly exchange of ideas." His 16 or 17 congregants back in Florida will doubtless be saddled with the expense of his trip to the Big Apple, as the self-proclaimed spokesman for American Christianity.
*In late breaking news, Pastor Jones claimed the New York Iman had agreed to move the mosque but the Iman said there was no such agreement, so Jones said he might continue with his Koran burning plan, just not on Saturday, 9/11. Meanwhile a Texas evangelist said he had bought a ticket for Jones to fly to NY on Friday night, possibly to meet with the NY Iman. At least Jones' parishioners won't have to foot the air fare for Jones' publicity generating trip to NY.
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