The pastor at the centre of the Koran-burning row says the imam behind plans to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero has ignored his deadline to get in touch. Pastor Terry Jones and his colleague Pastor K A. Paul had given the imam two hours to call them on one of two telephone numbers read out live on television. They deadline passed just after 8.15pm without “any word from the imam or his team".
Mr Jones said he was still “very hopeful” a meeting would take place. “As of this time we have not heard from the imam but we are still very, very hopeful that we will meet with him and we are still very convinced, through the different channels that we have which we at this time cannot mention, that this meeting will take place tomorrow.” A spokesman for Mr Jones said revealed he had agreed not to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday in the hope of finding a peaceful solution to their grievances about the location of the Islamic Centre. "I want to be clear and confirm 100% that there will not be Korans burning tomorrow (Saturday) at 6pm as was planned," he said.
Mr Jones was forced to reconsider his plans to fly to New York when Imam Rauf said he would not meet the pastor, but was open to seeing anyone “seriously committed to pursuing peace”. Earlier, standing outside the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, Mr Paul said it was legally acceptable for the Islamic centre to be built near the Ground Zero site of the Twin Towers destroyed in the 2001 attacks but not morally acceptable. “Is it the right thing to burn the Koran?
Legally can the pastor burn the Koran tomorrow?” he then asked. “Legally it’s right but is it the right thing to do? No.” President Barack Obama appealed for religious tolerance, reminding Americans the “overwhelming majority” of Moslems around the world are peace-loving people. Declining to mention Mr Jones’s name, the president referred to him as “the individual down in Florida”. Mr Obama said people must remember that the country’s enemy is not Islam but al Qaida and other extremist groups. He said Americans can’t turn on each other and let their fears lead to divisions.
He said the US is still hunting for attackers masterminded by Osama bin Laden. He said bin Laden had gone “deep underground” but efforts to hunt him down would go on as long as he is president. Mr Obama counselled respect and inclusion for Moslems in the US. He also addressed the continued terror threats against America nine years after the devastating 9/11 attacks. “There is always going to be the potential for an individual or a small group of individuals, if they are willing to die, to kill other people,” President Obama said. “We are going to have this problem out there for a long time to come, but it doesn’t have to completely distort us and it doesn’t have to dominate our foreign policy.
What we can do is to constantly fight against it.” The world will today remember the thousands of people killed and injured when Moslem extremists hijacked four planes and flew two into the World Trade Centre and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew tried to regain control of the aircraft. The British victims of the atrocity will be remembered in Grosvenor Square, London, where floral tributes will be laid on behalf of the UK and US governments. A senior Civil Service official will lay 67 roses – one for each of the British victims of the September 11 attacks – in London’s Grosvenor Square.
The flowers will carry a hand-written message from Prime Minister David Cameron, which reads: “In memory of the victims of terrorism in the USA on 11 September 2001. They will never be forgotten.” Memorial services will take place at the crash sites tomorrow and the remembrance event at Ground Zero will be followed by rallies for and against the Islamic centre plans. Thousands of Afghans protested yesterday over the pastor’s plans. At least 11 people were injured, officials said. In the northern province of Badakhshan several hundred demonstrators ran towards a Nato compound where four attackers and five police were injured in clashes.
Protesters burned an American flag at a mosque after Friday prayers. Two people were injured in a protest at another mosque in Farah province in the west. Following the protests, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Parker, deputy commander of International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, said: “These sorts of incidents outside Afghanistan are unhelpful to us.” Foreign Secretary William Hague was among those who condemned Mr Jones’s plans to burn copies of the Koran.
The Vatican, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan General David Petraeus, Tony Blair, and shadow foreign secretary David Miliband had all urged Mr Jones to call off his protest. Mr Jones had said the event was planned to “send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behaviour”.
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