How Terry Jones ‘put the Koran on trial’

Florida pastor Terry Jones and his obscure Dove World Outreach Center rose to notoriety last summer when he announced plans to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The plan was widely denounced, and he initially canceled, only to go through with the act on March 20.

The burning drew little press coverage in the United States but made headlines in parts of the Middle East. On Friday it touched off a violent demonstration that led to12 deaths at a United Nations office in northern Afghanistan.

In a pointed statement Friday that referred to Jones’s burning of the Koran, Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said the NAE “laments the tragic and senseless murder of United Nations workers in Afghanistan.”

“The actions of one church in Florida do not represent the vast majority of Christians, who desire to live in peace with their neighbors. But violence against other human beings is never an appropriate response.” Anderson said Jones’s burning of the holy book “showed blatant disrespect” for Muslims.

Terry Jones stands at a small protest at the site of the proposed mosque and community center in New York City last November. (Mario Tama - GETTY IMAGES)

Jones canceled the September burning amid international condemnation, saying at the time that an agreement had been made with the backers of the planned Islamic center near ground zero in Manhattan. But the Muslim group denied that such a deal had been made.

Reporting last summer, The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein wrote that Jones’s actions at the time were:

“...condemned by everyone from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Gen. David H. Petraeus to conservative commentator Glenn Beck to actress Angelina Jolie. Even Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham and an outspoken critic of Islam, tried twice without success to reach Jones to express his disapproval of defacing or destroying the sacred texts or writings of other religions, a spokesman said.”

In January, Jones announced new plans to “put the Koran on trial,” and he burned the scripture in front of a crowd of 30 two months later.

At the March event, Jones donned judicial robes and presided over what he called a trial of the Koran “following the example of an American court.” A prosecutor (Ahmed Abaza, a Muslim convert to Christianity) and a defense attorney (Texas imam Mohamed El Hassan) gave arguments on whether the Koran was guilty of “crimes against humanity.” The holy book was found guilty by the jury. “In accordance with our courtroom law,” Jones said from his perch, “the Koran must be punished,” and was then burned.

The AFP’s reported that the pastor Wayne Sapp carried out the burning under Jones’s supervision.

“The book, which had been soaking for an hour in kerosene, was put in a metal tray in the center of the church, and Sapp started the fire with a barbecue lighter.”

Few in the United States noticed that the pastor, who dominated news headlines last summer, had actually committed the hateful act. But an Associated Press story characterized the burning as consequential in parts of the Muslim world, noting “last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a ‘crime against a religion.’”

In a statement Friday, Jones called the killings in Afghanistan “a very tragic and criminal action.”

“The United States government and the United Nations itself, must take immediate action,” Jones said. “Muslim dominated countries can no longer be allowed to spread their hate against Christians and minorities. They must alter the laws that govern their countries to allow for individual freedoms and rights, such as the right to worship, free speech, and to move freely without fear of being attacked or killed.”