Terry Jones to Protest Youcef Nadarkhani's Execution by Burning Qurans

I guess we're about to find out whether Muslims really care about the Qur'an. If they're as sensitive as they claim to be, they'll have to let Youcef Nadarkhani live. Otherwise, Terry Jones is going to reply with a big pile of burned Qur'ans.

CHRISTIAN POST--The organization Stand Up America Now, led and founded by Dr. Terry Jones, revealed on Feb. 22 that it will burn Qurans and images of the prophet Muhammad in protest of the Islamic religion, should Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani be executed for his Christian faith.

The American Center for Law and Justice announced on Tuesday, Feb 21 that the Iranian courts may have issued an execution order for Nadarkhani. Nadarkhani, who has been a pastor at a number of house churches in Iran for the past 10 years, has been imprisoned since Oct. 2009, originally for protesting, but those changes were later controversially changed to apostasy and attempting to evangelize Muslims.

According to the Stand Up America Now website, the organization focuses on many social issues, with a special emphasis on standing up for Christian minorities persecuted in Islamic dominated countries.

On Feb. 23, 2012, Stand Up America Now, based in Gainesville, Fla., protested Islamic Awareness Month at the University of Florida, also located in Gainesville.

The organization's president and founder, Dr. Terry Jones, describes the planned burning of the Quran as a form of protest which would "obviously get Islam's attention," saying that Christians "cannot just stand by and do nothing."

"We have very little that we can do as a Christian community to protest the inhumane activities of Islam," Jones told The Christian Post.

"It's a type of protest to let the government know we are totally disgusted with their type of Shariah, with their activities. In fact, with the activities of Islam over the past 1,400 years," he added. (Read more.)

Michigan Court Rules: Dearborn Judge Mark Somers Violated Constitutional Rights of Pastor Terry Jones

Whether you agree with Terry Jones or not, all Americans should support his Constitutional rights. You may not agree with burning books (I certainly don't), but you should agree with a person's right to burn them. Dearborn Judge Mark Somers (the same judge who tried to get us convicted of "breach of peace" after Nabeel dared speak to young Muslims at the 2010 Arab Festival) threw Jones in jail for attempting to hold a peaceful protest across the street from a Dearborn mosque. Whatever his intentions were, the reality is that Judge Somers enforced Sharia in the United States. Fortunately, a higher court has overturned his deplorable decision.

Michigan--On Thursday, Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Ziolkowski ruled that Jones' constitutional rights were violated when the Wayne County Prosecutor and Dearborn District Judge Mark W. Somers required Jones and his associate pastor, Wayne Sapp, to take out a "peace bond" in order to hold a demonstration against "radical elements of Islam and Sharia" outside the Islamic Center of America.

Ziolkowski overturned Somers' ruling in April on First Amendment grounds, said Jones' attorneys.

The Wayne County Circuit Court judge also reversed the District Court judge's order of a three-year injunction that ordered Jones to stay away from the vicinity of the Islamic Center of America, where he planned his rally against "radical Islam and Sharia."
Jones applauded the ruling.

"We are very pleased that the decision of Judge Somers to ban us from exercising our free speech rights was overturned yesterday," Jones said in a release today. "Justice has been done, and the most important part of the American system has been protected, our First Amendment." (Read more.)