GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- His church's membership is down to just a few of the faithful. He is basically broke. Some of his neighbors wish him ill. And his head, he said, carries a bounty.
Yet Terry Jones, the pastor who organized a mock trial that ended with the burning of a Quran and led to violence in Afghanistan, remained unrepentant Saturday. He said that he was "saddened" and "moved" by the deaths, but that given the chance, he would do it all over again.
"It was intended to stir the pot; if you don't shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency," Jones said at his office in the Dove World Outreach Center. "Emotionally, it's not all that easy. People have tried to make us responsible for the people who are killed. It's unfair and somewhat damaging."
Violent protests against the burning continued Saturday in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where nine people were killed and 81 injured. The previous day, 12 people were killed when a mob stormed a U.N. building in Mazar-e-Sharif, though on Saturday the top U.N. official in Afghanistan blamed Taliban infiltrators for the killings. He said the victims had been deliberately murdered rather than killed by an out-of-control mob.
"Did our action provoke them?" the pastor asked. "Of course. Is it a provocation that can be justified? Is it a provocation that should lead to death? When lawyers provoke me, when banks provoke me, when reporters provoke me, I can't kill them. That would
not fly."Jones, 59, seems like a man from a different time. Sitting at his desk in his mostly unadorned office, he keeps a Bible in a worn brown leather cover by his side and a "Braveheart" poster within sight. Both, he said, provide spiritual sustenance for the mission at hand: Spreading the word that Islam and the Quran are instruments of "violence, death and terrorism."
In recent weeks, Jones said, he had received 300 death threats, mostly via email and telephone, and had been told by the FBI that there was a $2.4 million contract on his life.
For protection, his followers -- the 20 to 30 who are left -- openly carry guns (they have licenses, he said) and have become more rigorous about checking their cars and the bags of visitors. The church is locked. Police protection is sometimes required when the members travel, Jones said.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario