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Florida pastor Terry Jones said Saturday that he would never carry out plans to burn copies of the Quran, according to NBC. Jones had planned to burn the Muslim holy text on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but now says he’ll never go through with it. "We will definitely not burn the Quran, no,” he said in an interview with the “Today” show in New York. “Not today, not ever.” Jones said he would refrain from Quran-burning even if a proposed Islamic community center and mosque is built near Ground Zero, according to NBC. Jones...

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem "The Parting Of The Red Sea", by American Artist Arthur Friberg The Book Of PsalmsPsalm 78 A Contemplation[a] of Asaph. 1. Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3. Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4. We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful...

Well, the Wacky Moustache Minister called off International Burn a Koran Day, making a lot of people happy. But IMAO Reader Laurie dropped me a line with the following intriguing thought: "Is burning a Koran any different than deleting a file of a Koran? Here is a pdf which includes pages of the Koran: http://www.muhammadanism.org/Quran/translations_koran.pdf I downloaded it and deleted it. Nothing bad happened." Shame on her for insulting all those peaceful Muslims who threaten to kill people unless their demands are met. Full pdf versions of the Koran also available in 17 different languages at http://www.islamway.com/SF/quran/

September 11, 2001 I was on my way to work when I heard over the radio that a plane had flown into one of the WTC buildings. As reporters were trying to figure out what caused the accident, another hit. I got to work and saw on TV the twin towers aflame, people jumping to their deaths, then the horror of the buildings collapsing. But I had a job to do that morning. The indigent mental health care contractor had walked away leaving 1,100 people without care, and I was setting up emergency care services in space offered by the...

Sometimes, a White House press conference can be a chance for a president to take some weight off his shoulders ... but weight off his fingers? Eagle-eyed reporters noticed that President Barack Obama wasn't sporting his wedding ring during Friday's White House press conference. "big to-do over potus not wearing his wedding ring today," Tweeted The Hill's Sam Youngman, who was at the presser. Obama's wedding band is "an intricate gold design from Indonesia, where he had lived as a boy," the New York Times reported in 2009. Michelle will probably be okay with it; after all, she once left...

Nine years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, one thing remains certain: Some politicians and media types can stir the nation's darker impulses. "This is a controversy ginned up by the right-wing media," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical Christian author and activist who serves on the advisory council to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. "People are making a mistake of believing what the media points to as real," Wallis said. "All you have to do to get attention - whether you're in a cave in Afghanistan or a pastor in Florida - is...

President Barack Obama has paid a visit to "hallowed ground" at the Pentagon to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He says it might be natural to focus on the searing images from "that awful morning" in 2001 when al-Qaida struck the U.S. and so many lives "were taken so cruelly."

<p>With so many Democrats running against the president's agenda in the midterm, change will come in the next Congress, regardless of which party is in control.</p> <p>EmailPrintSave This ↓ More. .Twitter Digg + More close Yahoo! BuzzMySpacedel.icio.usRedditFacebookLinkedInFarkViadeoOrkut Text Barack Obama hit the campaign trail this week to resurrect some of that hopey-changey stuff and to complain that his critics talk about him "like a dog." Turns out the president wasn't, in fact, referring to his own party.</p>

All of us can remember how glorious that Tuesday morning was. All of us can remember the shock, anger and concern for the victims and their families while watching the towers burn, then the horror as we watched the needle descend slowly, as spears made of glass and steel peeled away from the crumbling tower, glistening from the reflection of the sun, piercing the blue sky, and simultaneously our hearts. I was standing at the south end of Trinity Church, and ran south from the “death cloud”...covered in ash, the quiet was interrupted by the sound of planes overhead, and...

WASHINGTON — Amid an atmosphere of unease, President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day. "If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation — one people — bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "By giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals — in defiance of those who...

At a news conference yesterday, President Obama spoke eloquently in defense of Islam, reminding Americans that we cannot lose our respect for religious pluralism. On the ninth anniversary of terrorist atrocities that killed nearly 3000, that’s worth remembering. The president said: "And I think it is absolutely important now for the overwhelming majority of the American people to hang on to that thing that is best in us, a belief in religious tolerance, clarity about who our enemies are — our enemies are al Qaeda and their allies who are trying to kill us, but have killed more Muslims than...

8:30 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The anti-Muslim leader of a tiny Florida church says he was lied to and is rethinking his decision to cancel burning Qurans to mark 9/11. Pastor Terry Jones earlier Thursday had backed off his threat to burn the Quran after he said he was promised that a planned Islamic center and mosque would be moved away from New York's ground zero. Muslim leaders denied there was such a deal. Later outside his church he said that the imam he thought he made the deal with "clearly, clearly lied to us" about moving the mosque.

Just in. I am looking at a picture of the WTC with smoke pouring out of the western tower. Looks like a huge amount of damage. Debris raining down on people in the street.

I am looking for recipes for a good cookout meat this Saturday. Anyone?

A Pakistani newspaper is quoting one of the country's ministers as stating he wants President Obama to offer Muslim prayers at Ground Zero and become the "Caliph," or ruler, of the Islamic nation. Prez urged to offer Muslim prayers at site of 9/11 attacks "The coming Eid would expectedly be observed on 9/11; this a golden opportunity for President Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero and become Amir-ul-Momineen or Caliph of Muslims. In this way, all the problems of Muslim World would be solved," stated Minister of State for Industries and Productions Ayatullah Durrani, according to Pakistan's The...

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed to the Pentagon press corps that Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Florida pastor Terry Jones this afternoon to express his “grave concerns” about a planned Koran burning because it could place US military lives at risk. Morrell said Gates placed a call between 4 and 4:30 p.m. today and engaged the pastor in a “very brief conversation." "The Secretary expressed his grave concerns to the pastor that going forward with the Koran burning would put the lives of American servicemembers at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan and he urged him not to proceed...

It just happened. Not much info on it yet. **URGENT** KGO-TV: Reported "explosion" near San Francisco grows to 6-alarm fire. http://twitter.com/USABreakingNews

As I stated earlier, this whole “Burn a Koran Day” is extremely being blown out of proportion. Christians that I have never seen say a word about the persecution of their Christians brothers and sisters, are being more protective of Islam than their own religion. Now we have two Churches that are going to honor Islam. A religion which calls for their dominance, and insults their view of Jesus. To make matters worse they are doing this on 911, to try and counter the “Burn a Koran Day”. Louisville religious groups are planning events in opposition to that. Clifton Universalist...

Hypocrisy: When the U.S. Army burned Bibles in Afghanistan, no one said a word. When churches burn around the world, crickets chirp. Burning Qurans in Florida is stupid and offensive, but so is the double standard. When President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, he asked that all images and symbols representing Jesus Christ be covered so as not to be in the frame of any videos or photos of the event. There were no reports of rioting. Nor did Christians riot when Christian U.S. Army soldiers attempted to hand out Bibles to Afghans in their...