A22 From Page One koran from A1
Press late last night that Jones told him he canceled his plans because he didn’twant to endan- ger American troops, not be- cause of a deal on the center. Musri said Jones “stretched my words” about what was said about the center. The disjointed exchanges are
part of an odd saga that has vaulted an unknown pastor to an international stage. Few outside Gainesville had
heard of Jones or his DoveWorld Outreach Center in late July when he announced “Interna- tional Burn the Koran Day” — and it largely remained that way until this week when the story appeared in the national news. As anger grew among Muslims worldwide and as U.S. leaders began to fear that images of Koran burning in the United States would be a recruitment tool for Islamic extremists, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, warned in a statement that the move could endanger American troops abroad. Condemnations from across
EZ SU
KLMNO
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 Florida pastor calls off Koran burning — for now
the political and religious spec- trums poured in, including from the Vatican, conservative talk- show host Glenn Beck, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Rod- ham Clinton. By the time Jones held his news conference, Obama hadweighed in, the State Department had warned travel- ing Americans that they could be in danger and Gates had felt compelled to ask the pastor to cancel the event. The president made his plea
on Thursday during an interview on ABC. “If he’s listening, I just hope he
understands that what he’s pro- posing to do is completely con- trary to our values as Americans; that this country has been built on the notions of religious free- dom and religious tolerance,” Obama said of Jones on “Good Morning America.” “We’re al- ready seeing protests against Americans just by the mere threat that he’smaking.” Demonstrations erupted inAf-
ghanistan on Thursday as hun- dreds of enraged youths burned effigies, threwrocks and chanted “Death to America.”
Pakistani President Asif Ali
Zardari said in a statement on Thursday that theKoran burning would “inflame sentiments among Muslims throughout the world and cause irreparable damage to interfaith harmony and also to world peace.” Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s
ambassador to the United States later said: “Pastor Jones’s deci- sion to cancel the event he had scheduled to burn copies of the Koran helps avoid an unneces- sary inflammation of passions. . . . This is definitely a positive moment in showing America’s tolerance and pluralism and should not go unappreciated in theMuslimworld.” Senior Obama administration
officials had hedged on how much attention to give Jones but thought they had to respond, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Mor- rell said. “The potential ripple effect here is very real,” he said. According to Jones, it was not
the call from the Pentagon chief that convinced him but his per- ception of a deal with Rauf, the New York imam. Jones had for days rebuffed appeals to cancel his event. But
on Thursday, he said that he asked God for a sign and that he considered the movement of the New York Islamic center as a message fromon high. Jones and his small church
Shop The Best of Both!
NEW ARRIVALS • Latest fall fashion • Up to 60% off department store prices
NEW MARKDOWNS • 100’s of items • Just reduced up to 50% off our original low prices
USE THESE COUPONS TO SAVE EVEN MORE!
Valid thru Sept 12
Take an EXTRA
20% Any One Item
One time use per transaction on one item only. Excludes Panache Gift Cards, Fabulous Finds, Skechers Shape-ups & BOGO golf balls. Not valid on previously purchased merchandise. Cannot be combined with other coupon offers. May be used with Stein Mart MasterCard®
Rewards Certificates. Coupon must be
surrendered at time of sale. Offer valid through 9/12/10 in participating stores. Coupon cannot be duplicated. Not for use by Stein Mart associates.
7002001020910106
Take an EXTRA
Red Dot Clearance
Valid on select items. Not valid on previously purchased merchandise. May be used with Stein Mart MasterCard®
be duplicated. Offer valid through 9/12/10 in participating stores. Not for use by Stein Mart associates.
GET 2HOURS FREE PARKING
IN THE CHEVY CHASE PAVILION PARKING GARAGE WITH ANY STEIN MARTPURCHASE
For your nearest Stein Mart store visit
www.steinmart.com or call 1-888-steinmart
SF 20% other coupon offers. Coupon must be surrendered at time of sale. Coupon cannot OFF
have drawn controversy before. He attracted a little attention earlier this year when he posted a sign reading “No homomayor” in front of the church protesting the openly gay man running for mayor, and last year Jones he put up a sign declaring “Islam is of theDevil” and sent children from his church to their public schools wearing T-shirts with the same message. The children were sent home, the Gainesville Sun re- ported. Jones looked bewilderedwhen
he was told that no agreement had beenmade about the Islamic center and he repeated what he thought he had been told. “Given what we are now hear-
ing, we are forced to rethink our decision,” Jones later told the Associated Press. “So as of right now we are not canceling the event, but we are suspending it.” The confusion seemed to stem
from a meeting Jones had with Musri, head of the Islamic Soci- ety of Central Florida. Musri, who stood beside Jones as he emotionally agreed to call off the Koran burning, said he had promised Jones only a meeting with Rauf to discuss moving the planned community center and
mosque in LowerManhattan. “There are no written agree-
ments,” Musri said. “I feel that the imam [Rauf ] is a very wise imam, and I think that now knowing that over 70 percent of theAmerican people do notwant it there, I think he is reconsider- ing it.” Musri said in interviews that
he had not spoken to Rauf but that he had set up ameetingwith him through Rauf ’s wife, Daisy Khan. In a CNN interview Wednes-
day night, Rauf indicated that he was open to moving the pro- posed Islamic center from its current location two blocks from Ground Zero. “Nothing is off the table,” he
said. “But we are consulting. We are talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and the safest option.” Rauf said that if he had known
the proposed site would cause so much controversy, “we certainly never would have done this.” But he warned that moving
the center could foment anti- American feelings abroad. “If we move from that loca-
tion, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse,” he said. “The head- lines in theMuslimworld will be that Islamis under attack.” Additional calls for Rauf and his partners tomove themosque
MICHAEL S. WILLLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Rev. Terry Jones of the DoveWorld Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., was confused about a conversation he says he had with an imam about moving a planned Islamic center near Ground Zero.
came from developer Donald Trump,whomade a splashy offer to buy the building for 25 percent more than its value. Itwas batted down as a publicity-seeking stunt given that Rauf ’s partners in the development have turned down larger offers, according to reports inNewYork newspapers. InGainesville, therewas a sigh
of relief after the Koran burning was initially called off. Safety officials had been bracing for the event and volunteers at the church had said they were ex- pecting “several hundred peo- ple” there on Saturday, including national and international me- dia. Regardless, Ismail ibn Ali,
president of Islam on Campus, a student group at the University of Florida in Gainesville, said he hoped Rauf would not strike a deal with Jones. “If the deal is that they move
the mosque in order to stop the Koran burning, I’ll be very disap- pointed,” he said. “It ultimately ends up being a win for the Islamophobes in America.”
thompsonk@washpost.com
Staff writers Annie Gowen, Michelle Boorstein, Greg Jaffe, David Nakamura, Jason Horowitz, Lisa de Moraes, Karin Bruillard and Karen DeYoung, research editor Alice Crites, and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
Steele’s trips to territories raise someGOP eyebrows
BY AMY GARDNER For a man hoping to lead his
party to major congressional vic- tories in November, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele has packed his travel schedule with some unusu- al destinations in recent weeks: Guam, the Northern Mariana Is- lands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. VirginIslands. The itinerary is fuelingspecula-
tionthatSteeleispositioninghim- self to run for a second term as chairman — and concern among some in the GOP that he may be spending time on that effort in- steadof onthemidtermelections. Steele was narrowly elected
chairman by the RNC’s 168mem- bers inJanuary2009.Hewonwith a large measure of help from the U.S. territories, which, thanks to the structure of the RNC, each carry asmuch voting clout as any of the 50 states. So some Republicans see
Steele’s recent travel as a signal that he is preparing for another run in January — at a time when theywouldrather seehimmaking fundraising calls and visiting the states whose races could help de- cide control of theHouse andSen- ate. “Trips to the territories are less
OFF Rewards certificates. Cannot be combined with
defensible in terms of election dy- namics than trips around the country,” said David Norcross, a former RNC member who has been critical of the committee’s fundraising efforts. “If he’s not on the phone, he should get on the phone.” HalfadozenRNCmembersalso
offered harsh assessments of the chairman’s travels and fundrais-
ing efforts, but none would speak onthe record. Steele’sdefenders saidit ishard
to criticize his performance given that the party is cruising toward a bannerday onNov. 2. “WhenwewintheObama[Sen-
ate] seat and the governor’sman- sion, which I think we’re going to do here in Illinois, and win the statehouse and pick up three con- gressional seats, a great deal of credit is going to go to Michael Steele,” said Pat Brady, chairman of the IllinoisGOP and a longtime Steele supporter. “If Illinois ismy barometer, thenhe’sbeentremen- dously successful.” Steelewas inGuamonWednes-
day and not available for an inter- view, but he told a reporter this week in Hawaii, where he was campaigning for Republican can- didates, that his trip there had “nothing to do” with his winning reelection. His spokesman, Doug Heye,
said the chairman traveled to the territories to raisemoney for can- didates and the RNC. He noted that Steele was in the Caribbean fora“dayandahalf”andwillbe in the Pacific for a similarly short stint, returning home Thursday morning. Heye also pointed out that un-
der Steele, the committee has in- creased its donor numbers by more than 400,000. On Wednes- day, the chairman will launch a 48-state bus tour to energize vot- ers and raise money for congres- sional elections.Andhehas ledan effort to build the party’s largest ground operation ever, featuring 310 “victory centers” in 44 states with more than 300 paid staff members. But Steele has weathered his
share of gaffes and controversies, including lavish spending and, most recently, public statements criticizing military action in Af- ghanistan. Heye declined to comment on
whetherSteelewillseekreelection inJanuary. “I can tell you that in this build-
ing,we’refocusedonNovember2,” he said. “Anything that happens after that, we’ll focus on after No- vember 2.” Such declarations have not
stopped speculation among RNC members. Some say they’re sur- prisedat thepossibilityofareelec- tion bid, given Steele’s scandal- plagued tenure, butmany also say it will be difficult to argue that he didn’t get the job—winning elec- tions—done. “Iassumewe’regoingtodovery
well in November,” said one com- mitteemember who spoke on the conditionofanonymity. “That cer- tainly doesn’t hurt his chances. But it’s kind of early for us to be focused on that. If you’re going to run for RNC chairman during the campaign, you’re going to hurt yourself.” Holland Redfield, an RNC
member from the Virgin Islands, saidSteelenevermentionedplans to seek reelection during his visit last month. But Redfield said he would support Steele again if he sought a secondterm. “Hismain objective down here
was to live up to the commitment made to the territories, and the territories took himover the top,” Redfield said. “This is the first chairman who has identified the importance of the territories. There is something called heavy lifting, and this chairman does heavy lifting.”
7002001020911104
Climb aboard the home delivery train.
1-800-753-POST
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136