ABSTRACT
In July of 2010, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida announced he would host a Qur'an burning on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on American sites. In a televised interview Jones explained:
… I believe it's Islam's mission to dominate the world, to replace local governments, to replace the constitution of the United States with Shari'a law. I believe that's very obvious, as you look around the world you see the fruits of Islam. You look at the trouble that England is having, that Germany is having, Holland, you see countries that are dominated by Islam, even countries like Saudi Arabia, you see there are no individual freedoms and rights. 1
Under an intense amount of media scrutiny and admonitions from many quarters, Jones rescinded his threat. A year later though, he put the Qur'an “on trial,” and after declaring the scriptures guilty of a number of crimes, burned the Muslim holy book. In April of 2012, he again held a public ceremony—“Stand Up America Now: Worldwide Burning of Korans” Day—at which other ministers from his church spoke and he prayed. Jones declared:Today, we are calling for a United States-wide, a worldwide, peaceful revolution. We must take our freedoms back. We must no longer allow us to be silenced, and our freedom of speech, our first amendment, our second amendment rights to be taken from us. It is time to stand up. Today, we will, as an act of protest, as an act of standing up, as an act of saying ‘You can push us no longer, we will no longer be silent, we will no longer sit down, we will no longer be at ease, and we will no longer appease Islam, Shari'a, and the Muslim community.’ We will today, all across this globe, burn the unholy, ungodly, perverted book of Islam, and the unholy, evil, so-called prophet Muhammed. 2
