Controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones was arrested Wednesday on his way to burn thousands of Qurans.
Jones and his associate pastor Marvin Sapp Jr. were arrested and booked in Polk County, Fla., after dousing 2,998 of the Muslim holy books with kerosene. The two were planning to set fire to the Qurans, and now face felony charges for unlawfully transporting fuel.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told NBC MIami after the arrest that Jones and Sapp doused the Qurans in a McDonald’s parking lot, then proceeded to drive the truck of books to a nearby park. “He was potentially driving a bomb down the road had there been a crash,” Judd said.
NBC Miami also reports that Jones is also being charged with a misdemeanor for openly carrying a firearm, and Sapp faces charges for invalid registration on the trailer the pair were using to transport the books. A post on the Stand Up America! website—Jones’ organization—announced the Quran protest back in April, and alleged that many of the “millions around the world” who are leaving the Islam faith have done so because of Jones’ past demonstrations: in 2010, Jones attempted to burn Qurans on the anniversary of 9/11, but cancelled the protest two days before the event, citing death threats and a message from God. At the time, he told the Today Show he would never set a Quran on fire—a promise he broke in both 2011 and 2012.
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