SALON: Thanks, News Corp., for not allowing good taste to stand in the way of your obsessive crusade against the construction of an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan near the site of the World Trade Center. Today’s Post features a beautiful two-page spread arguing that Ground Zero includes basically everything south of Canal and east of Broadway. They illustrate the argument with a grotesque map of the locations of every place in the area where firefighters found human remains following the attack of 9/11. MORE
REUTERS: The imam behind a proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site said on Friday he has no meeting planned with the Florida pastor who had threatened to burn copies of the Koran.”I am prepared to consider meeting with anyone who is seriously committed to pursuing peace. We have no such meeting planned at this time. Our plans for the community center have not changed. With the solemn day of September 11 upon us, I encourage everyone to take time for prayer and reflection,” Feisal Abdul Rauf said in a statement issued by his publicist. The publicist confirmed that meant there were no plans to meet with obscure Christian pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. MORE
RELATED: The estranged daughter of a U.S. pastor who has threatened to burn copies of the Koran believes he has gone mad and needs help, she said in a German media interview conducted on Friday. MORE
RELATED: Jones reaffirmed today that he no longer plans to go through with his Koran-burning ceremony. But several other religious leaders across the nation say they’ll go ahead with their own. In Springfield, Tenn., Rev. Bob Old has vowed to burn three copies of the Koran in his backyard and plans to videotape it, later uploading it onto the popular video streaming website YouTube. In Cheyenne, Wyo., Duncan Philp, the founder of the Wyoming Tyranny Response Team, plans to burn a copy of the Koran on the steps of the State Capitol on Saturday, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., which became infamous for heckling funerals of U.S. soldiers, also has said it will hold a Koran burning. MORE