if you ask me if i m just totally close minded, then i cannot respond with no because i m not. i mean, if god told us to do it, then i guess he can tell us to do something different. nbc s kerry sanders is joining us now with more from gainesville, florida. kerry, it sounds like this pastor is going to go forward with this protest. reporter: yeah, but when you hear him speaking, he s leaving the door open. i did that interview with him a short time ago, and he talked about the possibility that he may get a message from god telling him not to do this. bottom line, there s a tremendous amount of concern, specifically general david petraeus echoing what so many in uniform on the ground in afghanistan interact fear, and that s the image of a burning koran, whether it be in the field here outside this tiny little church with about 50
it s been circulated and rumored that information that we were given from the imam is incorrect, or falsified. we definitely don t want to believe that s true. as we said, it s not our plan to continue with the burning of the koran, so as of it, right now, it is temporarily suspended until we get a confirmation on the information we were given, that we have a meeting with the imam in new york on saturday, and that the plans are to relocate. in a statement, imam faisal abdul rauf, the man behind the proposed new york islamic center, insisted there was no deal and never was a deal. his statement reads in part i m glad pastor jones has decided not to burn any korans, however i have not spoke ton pastor jones or imam musri, the florida imam. abdul rauf went on to say he was
surprised by the announcement yesterday. the question is why would that florida imam have any power to tell pastor jones that the new york cultural center would be moved if he stopped his koran burning, which is now not canceled but on hold. the defense department confirms that defense secretary robert gates called pastor terry jones yesterday to ask him not to go forward with his plans to burn the muslim holy book. gates call came shortly before jones s initial announcement that he decided to call off the event. a pentagon spokesman said gates expressed his grave concern that burning the koran would put u.s. forces at risk. gates phone call was the latest in a number of efforts by the obama administration this week to stop the burning. it s regrettable that a pastor in gainesville, florida, with a church with no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and just distressful,
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