Burned? Pastor Stops Koran Desecration (The video's owner prevents external embedding)
Pastor Terry Jones: How he went from nobody to international villainIt started with a tweet.
Not many people knew who Terry Jones was earlier this summer. But over the last several days, the story of the small-town Florida pastor has snowballed.
The "will he or won't he burn Korans" question brought a whole new dimension to the 9/11 anniversary -- not to mention America's relations with the Muslim world -- and Jones quickly gained national and international notoriety.
In the past few days, Jones has gone from being adamant that he'd burn Korans to being undecided to vowing that he'd never, ever ignite Islam's holy book.
So how'd it happen?
As the Washington Post reported, Jones tweeted multiple messages in mid-July, saying Islam was akin to fascism, criticizing President Obama's support for a Kenyan constitution that would allow abortion and support Islamic law, and announcing "9/11/2010 Int Burn a Koran Day."
Shortly after, he started a Facebook group.
Two days later, EuroIslam.Info – an Islamic news monitoring group headed by a Harvard professor of divinity – printed the group's mission statement "to bring to awareness to the dangers of Islam and that the Koran is leading people to hell" and posted it on its website.
Nine days later, the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Jones.
The pastor was still, for the most part, unknown.
Less than a week and a half later, Jones tweeted that he had more than 700 fans on his Facebook group. At the same time, others began joining groups denouncing the plan to burn the Koran.
NPR reported that the mainstream media started picking up the story after the Orlando Sun-Sentinel flagged Jones on July 27. Two days later, the pastor did a short interview on CNN, and the pastor began gaining more attention, as the interview was circulated both at home and abroad.
The first protest over the planned rally took place in Indonesia on Sept. 4, where thousands of people demonstrated. But the wheels really started moving last Sunday when Gen. David H. Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal that burning the Koran could endanger U.S. troops abroad.
After that, the move was denounced by the world's leaders including President Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Protests erupted all over the world. Demonstrators were seen burning American flags, and sometimes effigies of Jones.
While Jones has called off the event, he still has a gaggle of media following him around. He's done an awkward dance, calling off the Koran bonfire, being undecided and then on Saturday announcing that he'd never burn a Koran.
"Not today, not ever," he told NBC.
If nothing else, analysts around the world say Jones has become part of the discussion, and isn't going anywhere quite yet.
Vir Sanghvi, a columnist at the Hindustan Times in India, said Jones has converted himself from a "previously obscure figure to the lead item on news broadcasts over the world."
But one thing he did do is clear.
"His Koran-burning announcement set off a global debate about Islamophobia," Sanghvi said.
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