Florida Minister Cancels Quran Burning Event

VOA News

The leader of a small U.S. church has cancelled his plan to burn copies of the Quran.

The Reverend Terry Jones said Thursday he called off his protest because he had reached an agreement with Muslim leaders to move a planned Islamic cultural center and mosque away from the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.

However, a statement from the cleric in charge of the New York mosque project said there was no agreement to move the location.

A Muslim cleric who appeared with Jones in Florida, Imam Muhammad Musri, said he and Jones would travel to New York Saturday to discuss moving the proposed mosque. Musri said he had arranged for a meeting with the New York imam who heads the project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, to discuss moving the Islamic cultural center. But Musri said he had not yet received any assurances the center would actually be moved.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones Thursday and urged him not to go ahead with the Quran burning, telling the Florida pastor his plan would put the lives of U.S. soliders at risk.

Jones said moving the planned Islamic cultural center in New York would accomplish his church's goals because, he said, "the American people do not want the mosque at the ground zero location."

Jones heads the small Dove World Outreach Center church in Gainesville, Florida.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other U.S. and international political and religious leaders have spoken out against the plans to burn copies of the Quran. President Obama called burning the Quran an attention-seeking "stunt" that could endanger U.S. troops.

The U.S. State Department issued a worldwide travel alert Thursday warning U.S. citizens of the potential for anti-U.S. demonstrations in other countries in response to the Quran burning plans.