Pastor Terry Jones was arrested in Florida yesterday just as he was about to burn thousands of kerosene-soaked copies of the Koran.
The pastor had said he was planning to burn 2,998 of the Muslim holy books— one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Sheriff's deputies in Polk County, Fla., arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 44, each on a felony charge of unlawful conveyance of fuel. Jones had said he was heading to a nearby park in Mulberry to burn the Qurans on Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the attacks. Sheriff's officials said that Jones was also charged with unlawful open-carry of a firearm, a misdemeanor, and that Sapp faces a charge of having no valid registration for the trailer. Both were being booked Wednesday night into the Polk County jail, according to Sheriff Grady Judd.
Previous stunts by Jones have resulted in riots and deaths in Afghanistan.
Egyptian Court Sentences Florida Pastor Terry Jones To Death Over Movie
An Egyptian court has sentenced Florida Pastor Terry Jones to death for his alleged role in the creation of an anti-Islam movie. Seven others reported to be involved in the film were also sentenced to death. All, including Jones, were sentenced in absentia.
The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.The low-budget "Innocence of Muslims," parts of which were made available online, portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.Egypt's official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country's chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.
Jones says the sentence "shows the true face of Islam." (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)
Canada yesterday blocked Florida-based Pastor Terry Jones from crossing the border to deliver a planned speech in Toronto.
Jones told CBC News he may appeal. But for the time being, he said he would head back to Florida. The Canada Border Services Agency made Jones go through a secondary inspection when he arrived at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., around noon. Secondary inspection involves a search of a person's vehicle and more extensive questioning. He was held there for several hours before being told he would not be allowed into Canada. Jones said the CBSA cited a previous peace bond infraction in the U.S. as well as an incident relating to a disputed honorary doctorate in Germany to keep him out. "The reasons are pretty bogus in our opinion," he said.
A spokesperson for Canada Border Services would not comment specifically on why Jones was turned back, but said, "Several factors are used in determining admissibility into Canada, including involvement in human rights violations, in organized crime, in criminal activity, security, health or financial reasons." (Tipped by JMG reader David)
Suspicions Grow Over True Identity Of Anti-Islam Filmmaker "Sam Bacile"
While many news outlets quickly corrected initial reports to point out that crackpot Florida Pastor Terry Jones "only" had a hand in promoting the anti-Islam film now inciting violence across the Middle East, the man that many publications then named as film's producerdoes not exist.
The mysterious “Sam Bacile” supposedly spoke to The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Times of Israel, claiming to be a California real estate developer and an Israeli Jew who raised $5 million for the film from 100 other nameless Jewish donors. However, since those stories were published, several cracks in that description have emerged, and now reporters are wondering whether he even exists at all. The WSJ reported that he’s 52, but the AP placed his age at 56. Raw Story‘s own inquiries could not find a ”Sam Bacile” linked to any California court filing, which would be highly unusual for a real estate developer. He’s also missing from U.S. genealogy databases and the major social media networks. And yet another wrinkle: Speaking on condition of anonymity, Israeli officials told the AP that they have no record of anyone by that name.
Another man quoted by the Associated Press as a consultant on the film has confessed that "Sam Bacile" does not exist.
“I don’t know that much about him,” he reportedly said. “I met him, I spoke to him for an hour. He’s not Israeli, no. I can tell you this for sure, the State of Israel is not involved, Terry Jones is not involved. His name is a pseudonym. All these Middle Eastern folks I work with have pseudonyms. I doubt he’s Jewish. I would suspect this is a disinformation campaign.”
Commenters on the above-linked site and many others are now speculating as to whether the entire debacle was staged to damage the Obama campaign. (Tipped by JMG reader David)
The American ambassador to Libya has been killed in the violent reaction to an anti-Islamic film made in the U.S. and promoted by Florida's Pastor Terry Jones.
The attacks occurred Tuesday night in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad, according to Libya officials. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob guns and rocket propelled grenades. Three other Americans were also killed. The State Department identified one of the other Americans as Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer. The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Obama called Stevens a "courageous and exemplary representative of the United States." "I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi," Obama said in the statement. The four Americans, he said, "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe."
The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were reportedly killed Tuesday in riots sparked by outrage at a film backed by Gainesville pastor Terry Jones, the Gainesville pastor whose burning of Korans last year led to days of rioting in Afghanistan. Jones and other backers of the film, Muhammad, were unapologetic about the role they may have had in triggering the violence. "The fact that angry protesters climbed the wall at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today, ripped down the American flag and tore it apart further indicates the lack of respect that Islam has for any other religion, any other flag, any freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion," Jones said Tuesday in a statement released before the death in Benghazi was confirmed. "It further illustrates that they have no tolerance for anything outside of Muhammad."
EGYPT: Riots At US Embassy After Film Depicts Mohammed As Homosexual
Egyptian protesters today overran the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down the American flag after seeing clips from an anti-Islam film produced by Florida-based Pastor Terry Jones. [SEE UPDATE BELOW] The movie apparently depicts Mohammed as a homosexual and child molester.
Nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them hardline Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement, gathered at the embassy in protest over a film deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed which was produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Christian minority resident in the United States. A dozen men scaled the embassy walls and one of them tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black one inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God." Demonstrators also daubed part of that slogan - "There is no God but God" - on the walls of the embassy compound. A US State Department spokeswoman confirmed the incident.
The Cairo embassy has issued numerous tweets denouncing Jones, but not by name.The Atlantic has some information about the movie.
The movie is called Mohammed Nabi al-Muslimin, or Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims. If you've never heard of it, that's because most of the few clips circulating online are dubbed in Arabic. The above clip, which is allegedly from the film (update: Kurt Werthmuller, a Coptic specialist at the Hudson Institute, says he's confirmed the clip's authenticity) is one of the only in English. That's also because it's allegedly produced by Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the asshole who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts. The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt. [snip] Other scenes in the above clip seem to portray Muslim Egyptian characters, who for some reason all have strong New York accents, as immoral and violent, particularly toward the Christians whom they pursue with near-genocidal fervor. A number of Islam's founding figures, including the prophet, are accused of homosexuality and child molestation.
Terry Jones has just posted a new clip on YouTube.
UPDATE: The violence has now spread the American consulate in Libya.
An armed mob has attacked the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi and set fire to the building, witnesses reported, in what they said was a protest at a film they said offended Islam. A little earlier, Libya's deputy interior minister Wanis al-Shari, told AFP the crowd had attacked the building and that information was confirmed by the US embassy in the capital Tripoli. "There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the U.S. consulate," Abdel-Monen Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, said to Reuters, adding that roads had been closed off and security forces were surrounding the building. A U.S. embassy source said there had been "an attack" on the diplomatic office in Benghazi, but gave no further details.
RELATED: In April 2011 eleven people were killed in Afghanistan, including some United Nations employees, after riots erupted when Jones burned the Koran outside his Florida church.
UPDATE II: Mitt Romney has issued a statement denouncing the president.
“I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," the statement read. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” The assertion that the administration sympathized with attackers was derived from a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo — before the compound was breached — criticizing an anti-Muslim film that "hurt the religious feelings" of others. Even after coming under attack, the Embassy spent much of the day defending and reasserting the statement on Twitter. Whether Obama deserved the blame for the Embassy's messaging is a point of debate; what was not was the news value of Romney's harsher-than-expected statement.
UPDATE III: Contrary to the reports first linked above, US-based Pastor Terry Jones did NOT produce the film, he has merely been promoting it.
