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Pastor says Cancellation of Quran Burning Hinges on Meeting with NY Imam

   VOA News 10 September 2010
   Pastor  Terry  Jones  of the Dove World Outreach Center returns to his
   church  after  a  second press conference in Gainesville, Fla., 09 Sep
   2010

Photo: AP

   Pastor  Terry  Jones  of the Dove World Outreach Center returns to his
   church  after  a  second press conference in Gainesville, Fla., 09 Sep
   2010

   The  leader  of a small Christian church in the southern U.S. state of
   Florida  says he is no longer planning to burn copies of the Quran, as
   long  as  he  is  able to meet with the imam behind a proposed Islamic
   center  in  New  York  near the site where the World Trade Center once
   stood.
   The Reverend Terry Jones told U.S. media Friday that he is planning to
   meet with the imam on Saturday.  But the New York cleric, Imam Feisal
   Abdul Rauf, has denied any such meeting.
   Imam Rauf also expressed surprise at Jones' announcement Thursday that
   Muslim  leaders had agreed to move the planned Islamic cultural center
   and  mosque  away from an area near the site of the September 11, 2001
   attacks.  He said there is no such agreement.
   In  response, the controversial pastor said he feels he was lied to by
   a  Muslim cleric in his state of Florida, Imam Muhammad Musri, who had
   been helping to negotiate a settlement.
   Musri,  president  of  the  Islamic Society of Central Florida, denied
   that  he  misled  the  pastor, and said he is still trying to set up a
   meeting  between  himself,  Jones  and  Rauf  to  discuss the proposed
   center.
   Jones'  plan  to burn some 200 copies of the Quran on Saturday to mark
   the   ninth   anniversary   of  the  September  11  attacks  generated
   international   outrage  and  condemnation  from  many  religious  and
   political leaders.
   U.S.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones and urged him not to
   go  ahead  with the Quran burning, telling the Florida pastor his plan
   would put the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk.
   Agents  from  the  U.S.  Federal Bureau of Investigation also spoke to
   Jones  at  his  Dove World Outreach Center, an independent church with
   about 50 members.
   Jones  said  moving  the  planned  Islamic cultural center in New York
   would  accomplish  his  church's goals because, he said, "the American
   people  do not want the mosque at the Ground Zero location."Â  He told
   reporters he has been praying about the issue.
   U.S. President Barack Obama and other U.S. and international political
   and religious leaders have spoken out against the plans to burn copies
   of   the   Quran.   President  Obama  called  burning  the  Quran  an
   attention-seeking "stunt" that could endanger U.S. troops.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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