I just got off the phone with Craig Lowe – Gainesville, Florida mayor. Lowe is angry with the pastor of the ‘Dove World Outreach Centre,’ a non-denominational church claiming some 300 active members. Lowe says Pastor Terry Jones and ‘the whole church is an embarrassment’ to the city.
On the phone, Pastor Jones sounds like a pretty straightforward kind of guy, doesn’t hem or haw too much. Jones says on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, his church will burn a big pile of Korans, right in the middle of church property. He believes his church has every right to do that and that all sides agree on that point.
Jones tells me he’s had death threats, and says his church has received e-mails from Muslims outside of America, who are threatening to avenge any ‘desecration’ of the Koran.
Jones says he takes the threats seriously, but refuses to cancel the planned event. Mayor Lowe says his office has tried to ‘start a dialogue (with Pastor Jones) but that’s not been fruitful’.
The church sells coffee mugs and t-shirts with the words, ‘Islam is of the devil’. Pastor Jones tells me that sales of both are up. He says the church routinely gets phone calls of support from law enforcement and government officials. He wouldn’t name names, but says that support is solid but quiet, fearing they could lose their jobs or worse.
Mayor Lowe told me he doesn’t believe any of that.
I asked the mayor what he thought the difference was between people who burn Christian bibles, and those who would burn a Koran.
“Burning a bible, well different things are held more dearly to certain cultures. I think that’s the case here. If you have an action that will be extremely hurtful to members of a group, the humane thing to do is not to engage in that behavior.”
Pastor Jones says Christians are offended when people burn bibles, but are too intimidated to speak up. “To me it confirms that we have to do this. There is fear there and that fear is justified. Islam has proven that over and over. If we don’t burn a Koran, that fear won’t go away. We can show these people ‘look, we will only be pushed so far’.”
The mayor of Gainesville tells me if the planned “Koran burning” takes place, he’ll have “adequate” law enforcement on hand to keep the peace.
Pastor Jones says he has armed security on hand already, but would welcome any extra security the city has to offer.
