Thursday, September 9, 2010

EXTRA: Pastor Cancels Muslim Porn Burning, Plans to Meet Imam


by Thornhille Broome, TYDN Editor at Large
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- (TYDN) The pastor planning a burning of Muslim porn on Saturday said Thursday he will cancel the event, adding he plans to meet with the imam planning to build a Wal-Mart near Ground Zero.

Terry Jones, the pastor from Gainesville, Fla., said in an exclusive interview with TheYellowDailyNews, "We have agreed to cancel the event."

The pastor's announcement came after a growing chorus of demands, from President Obama to religious leaders, American generals and others, that he cancel burning the holiest form of porn because of the potential impact on Christian-Muslim relations and the effect a Muslim porn burning would have on American troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The decision by Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, came the same day President Obama said that the pastor's plan to burn the holiest form of porn on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was a 'stunt' that violates American principles of tolerance.

"If Mr. Jones is listening, I just hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Mr. Obama said in an exclusive interview with TheYellowDailyNews.

Jones' decision to cancel the event was first reported Thursday on TheYellowDailyNews' website.

Obama said that the Muslim porn burning would be a "recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda" and other terrorist groups looking for people willing to "blow themselves up" in American or European cities.

Mr. Obama is the strongest voice so far among a long list of prominent political and religious leaders who have condemned Mr. Jones's highly publicized plan to burn holy, muslim porn.

General David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Afghanistan, said this week that the burning would put American troops there directly in harm's way, a warning echoed by the FBI, which has said that Islamic extremists would likely retaliate.

The reaction in the Muslim world, many Islamic experts said, could be as bad, or perhaps even worse, than the reaction after a Danish newspaper published a cartoon in 2005 depicting the prophet Mohammad with his turban turning into a bomb. The cartoon ignited huge protests around the Muslim world.

The United States stayed largely out of the controversy, with riots and burnings directed toward Danish and European entities. But a burning of sacred Muslim porn in Florida would unleash that anger directly at the United States, scholars warned.

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