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Gainesville pastor gives 2-hour ultimatum to New York City imam
Gainesville pastor gives 2-hour ultimatum to New York City imam
GAINESVILLE Over the past two days in the ever increasing drama surrounding a Central Florida pastor's plans to burn copies of the Quran, the pastor, an imam and a rabbi have all held news conferences outside the Dove World Outreach Center.
This afternoon, in yet another new twist, Pastor Terry Jones introduced reporters to yet another new religious leader - one who issued a two-hour deadline for a New York City imam to make contact and set up a meeting.
Left unspoken: What happens if the imam misses the deadline.
But so far, neither Jones nor anyone else at Dove is saying that the threatened burning of the Quran is back on for Saturday.
K.A. Paul, president of the Houston-based Global Peace Initiative, stood behind Jones as he gave a brief introduction, then told reporters he had a challenge for Feisal Abdul Rauf, the New York imam leading plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
"Let me make it crystal clear," Paul said. "We would challenge the imam to call us within the next two hours so that we can set up a meeting."
Paul then made public his cell phone number along with the cell phone number of Jones' associate pastor, Warren Sapp.
Paul said he believed that Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, had in fact deceived Jones on Thursday and had promised that the mosque would be moved away from Ground Zero if Jones and the several dozen members of Dove World called off their plans to burn the sacred Islamic text.
"I was there yesterday, I spoke to Pastor Terry, as well as to members of his team, and I know what really happened," Paul said.
But Paul ignored questions as to whether or not he had actually attended the meeting, or how he knew Musri had lied if he wasn't at the meeting.
"We will have the answer at 3:20," is all he would say to repeated questions.
Paul, who was born to Hindu roots and has called himself the "Billy Graham of India," is an international CHristian evangelist who has seen his own share of controversy. According to published reports, Paul claimed to have convinced former House speaker Dennis Hastert to not seek another term in office after the Mark Foley scandal.
As local Muslims celebrated the holiday closing out the Islamic holy month of fasting, a local pastor vowed he would still cancel plans to burn copies of the Quran this weekend while he and Islamic leaders sparred over whether an agreement ever existed to move a controversial Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero.
As Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones made the rounds this morning on television news shows, international reports trickled in that several people had been injured and one person possibly killed in an Afghani protest of the event his church planned in commemoration of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Thursday night, Jones and Central Florida's Imam Muhammad Musri disagreed over an earlier conversation they had inside Jones' Gainesville church, which has been swarmed by an international crush of media this week while everyone from President Barack Obama to the Vatican condemned the burn.
Jones said Musri told him three times that the New York imam behind the proposed Islamic center and mosque had agreed to move the site if he canceled the burn. Musri said he'd merely promised a meeting with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in New York to discuss the issue.
Jones told ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "The Today Show" that as of this morning he had no plans to go through with burning the sacred Islamic text and still hoped to meet with Rauf in New York even though he felt Musri had lied to him about the agreement.
"There is absolutely no possibility that I misunderstood him," Jones told host Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America."
Musri on Thursday at first said Jones had stretched his words regarding the agreement but by sundown said Jones' characterization of the meeting was flat out untrue.
Musri said Jones had been looking for a way to bow out of the planned Quran burn even before he offered the meeting. Musri told The Palm Beach Post on Thursday that Jones weighed canceling the ceremony on Saturday, but Musri urged him to call it off earlier.
Jones agreed and the two religious leaders decided to address the media together, Musri said, but the pastor's words had changed by the time they stepped outside the church together.
