Koran-Burning Pastor Plans Protest
DEARBORN, MI - Terry Jones, the Koran-burning Florida pastor, says Detroit-area police and prosecutors are trying to silence him by demanding a $100,000 bond.
Jones plans to visit Dearborn, Mich., which has one of the biggest Muslim populations in the country, on Good Friday, The Detroit News reported. Prosecutors filed a motion requesting he put up a "peace bond" and saying he could cause a riot "complete with discharge of firearms."
The Dearborn police said he should put up $100,000 to cover the cost of overtime, Jones said. He called the move unconstitutional and said he does not plan to pay.
"Nothing has changed. Nothing will change," Jones said. "We will definitely be there."
Jones is the pastor of Dove World Outreach Center, a small church in Gainesville, Fla. Last year, he announced plans to hold a public burning of the Koran but backed down.
More recently, Jones burned a Koran. The action was ignored by U.S. news media but when the news reached Afghanistan it set off deadly riots.
Jones said he plans a protest against radical Islam outside the Dearborn mosque, the biggest in the country.
Dawud Walid of the Council on American-Islamic Relations suggested prosecutors are helping Jones by going to court.
"Their action innocently played into Jones' objectives, which is to paint Dearborn as a pro-sharia city that's oppressing Christians, which is, of course, not true," he told the Detroit Free Press.
