There is a VIDEO at the bottom of the NYDN article. I can’t seem to reproduce it here.
Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones defends himself against Bill O’Reilly who called him ‘insane’
BY Nancy Dillon
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, April 5th 2011, 9:31 PM
Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones struck back at Bill O’Reilly Tuesday after the conservative Fox News host called him an “insane Christian” who had “blood on his hands.”
The . . . Florida pastor said he bears no responsibility for the 24 deaths resulting from Afghan protests sparked by his March 20 desecration of the Islamic holy book in Florida.
“We reject Mr. O’Reilly’s statement. The responsibility should be laid upon the people who committed the acts,” he said in a statement to the Daily News.
“The recent events are an example of the violent nature of Islam. Just because a book was burned, they used this as an excuse to retaliate. We should not in any way condone their actions,” he said.
Jones’ five-hour mock trial and burning of the sacred text touched off an eruption of anti-American sentiment already inflamed by recent civilian casualties in war-torn Afghanistan.
The bloodshed started Friday with a massacre at a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that left four Nepalese guards and three European staffers dead.
Wayne Sapp, the co-pastor who actually set the Koran ablaze as Jones watched, said their small and struggling Gainesville church was considering a follow-up trial of the Prophet Mohammed.
“It’s in the back of our minds,” Sapp told the Daily News. “It’s according to how much people wake up with just the trial of the Koran. The Koran was written because of the life of Mohammed. So if it takes another trial to expose the things he did in his life, we’d go in that direction.”
Sapp, 42, claimed his actions did not display a reckless disregard for human life.
“I myself I have no regrets,” he told the News. “We’re not running into the U.N. and dragging people out and shooting and beheading. We held a peaceful demonstration inside our own facility. We set a book on fire that we purchased. Everything we did was peaceful.”
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