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| File Photo: Re. Terry Jones |
Source/Credit: Tampa Bay Online
By Keith Morelli | January 12, 2011
The Rev. Terry Jones, who made an international name for himself last year when he announced he was going to burn the Quran at his Gainesville church, now is staging an "International Judge the Quran Day."
"Yes, we're going to do it," Jones said on a YouTube address announcing the event. "We have decided to do it on March 20 starting at 6 p.m. It's your opportunity, all you so-called peaceful Muslims. On that day the Quran will be put on trial.
"We are accusing the Quran of murder, rape, deception," he said, "and being responsible for terrorist activities all over the world."
Basically, it's a trial, he told a Tampa Bay audience on WFLA-AM 970 this morning. Judgment day will take place on the grounds of his church, the Dove World Outreach Center.
"We are challenging the Muslim world to defend the Quran, he said on the radio show.
"They say the Quran is a book of peace and a religion of peace," he said. "We are asking them to present to us a defense person who will try to defend the Quran."
He called the book "evil."
He said a jury of about 30 people, made up of Christians and Muslims, will decide.
"If found guilty," he said, "there are four forms of punishment: burning, drowning, shredding or firing squad."
Jones' website, Stand Up America, contains a survey on which visitors can pick a punishment.
Jones and his church sparked worldwide controversy last year when he announced a plan to burn 200 copies of the Quran, Islam's holiest book, on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Leaders of various faiths condemned his plan and even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called Jones' small church in northwest Gainesville and urged him to cancel the event because of worry that the action would endanger U.S. troops in the Middle East.
Jones backed off on the threat two days before the scheduled burning.
Jones is expected to hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon announcing details of the mock trial. Signs on the church property already announce the event, taking place at 6 p.m. on March 20.
Rev. Dan Johnson, pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, said when the Quran burning episode was unfolding, Christians around the region came together against it.
He hadn't heard about the mock trial plans.
"I pray and I hope ... I really don't' think much will come of it," he said today. All this shows is that there is more work to be done, in terms of tolerance and understanding.
"I don't know," he said. "This is crazy to go down this road again. This is so foreign to what Jesus was all about."
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