Terry Jones, a pastor of the "Dove World Outreach Center" in Gainesville, Florida, talks of reconsidering his decision to abandon plans to burn copies of the Holy Quran on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
He earlier agreed to give up the much-criticized proclamation after he was persuaded by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who called on him to appeal directly that the plan would not only hurt the sentiments of Muslims but also endanger the lives of U.S. troops abroad.
Hours later Jones backtracked, saying it had merely been suspended.
"Right now, we are just putting a temporary hold on our planned event," he said.
Jones had said his relenting was in exchange for a deal to relocate a controversial mosque project near Ground Zero in New York.
He claimed that he was assured by Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, that the controversial Ground Zero mosque would be located elsewhere.
A furious Jones claimed that the imam leading the project for the Islamic cultural center in New York, Feisal Abdul Rauf, quickly denied any such agreement.
Rauf was to meet with Pastor Jones in New York Saturday to finalize the deal.
"We put a suspension on it because right now we are actually really disappointed and very shocked because if this turns out to be true, he [Imam Musri] very clearly lied to us," Jones said later following Rauf's denial.
"Given what we are now hearing, we would be forced to rethink our decision, because we canceled it based upon his word. I understand he [Imam Musri] is now going around saying that he did not say that," he added.
Musri, however, said that the only promise he made was the plans of him and Jones traveling to New York Saturday to meet with Rauf.
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