With pressure building on potential nominees for the 2016 U.S. presidential election to declare their candidacy, a surprise entrant who added colour to the race this week was controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones.
Jones who is avowedly “anti-Obama,” and described as a “fringe front-runner” in the race, made headlines in 2010 when he declared his intention to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, causing deep consternation in the U.S. administration, which feared a violent backlash.
When Jones announced his plans to hold an “International Burn a Koran Day,” he faced major pressure from world leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama to call off the event.
“As a very practical matter, as Commander in Chief … this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform,” Mr. Obama said at the time.
Mr. Obama also warned that Mr. Jones’ plans to attack Islam in this manner would be a “recruitment bonanza for al Qaida,” specifically that there could be serious violence in Pakistan or Afghanistan as a result of such religious intolerance and “This could increase the recruitment of individuals who'd be willing to blow themselves up in American cities, or European cities.”
Yet this week in an interview with a television channel here Jones said on Monday, “I believe most all politicians are politicians… They’re not telling the American people the truth. I’m running for president. Vote for me.”
Although he told reporters that he was “pretty devastated by the condition of America, the moral condition, the spiritual condition, the economical condition,” he admitted that winning would require “some type of major miracle.”
Reports quoted Samir Khatib, Spokesperson for the Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton in Florida, saying that the idea of Jones running for president was laughable.
“Warmonger. Hatemonger. He hates people. To even think of becoming the president of the most prestigious countries in the world, the most powerful country, is an insult to the American people,” Mr. Khatib said.
