A Double-Take on Burning the Qu'ran

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 10, 2010

This just in from the “Where do we get these people?” department:

The Reverend Terry Jones has announced that he won’t burn the Qu'ran after all. Jones had provoked an international uproar with his plan to burn a copy of the Qu'ran on the anniversary of 9/11.

In the midst of the uproar, President Obama urged Jones to listen to “those better angels”, since burning the Qu'ran would endanger U.S. troops and provide Islamic extremists with a recruiting tool. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates actually called Jones personally to talk him out of his plan. That call took place during a meeting of Jones with Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, during which Jones claims (and Musri denies) that a deal was struck to cancel the book burning in exchange for a pledge to move the Islamic community center proposed for construction near Ground Zero in New York.

As of this writing, it has become clear to Jones that he has no such deal, and that the leader of the New York project has not even spoken with Imam Musri. Nonetheless, Jones says he concluded in prayer that if the Islamic center was moved, it would be a sign from God that He did not want the Qu'ran to be burned, and he still expresses the hope that everything will work out. He accuses Imam Musri of lying to him, but Musri says he just promised to try to set up a meeting between Jones and his New York counterpart, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Jones is the pastor of a Pentecostal church in South Florida, the Dove Outreach Center, which has just 50 members. It is pretty clear that he is considerably out of his depth in every aspect of this affair, beginning with his half-baked spiritual conclusions. Jones is, I suppose, a walking argument against the constant splintering of Christianity, and the resulting creation of instant “reverends” with no one to guide and correct them.

But Jones is also far more malleable than he seemed originally. Yesterday, he was fully converted to the anti-burning cause. “We are, of course, now against any other group burning Qu'rans,” he said in an interview. “We would right now ask no one to burn Qu'rans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.”

No kidding.

But what's not so funny, according to the FBI, is that there have been over 50 death threats against Jones and his family. It would be very sad indeed if this were the reason for Jones' change of heart.