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Showing posts with label Koran burning cancelled. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Koran burning cancelled. Show all posts
Celebrities from show business, sport and other sectors of society volunteered as supporters of the G20 Summit in Seoul on Nov. 11 and 12. The list of stars includes K-pop groups Girls' Generation and 2NE1, film director Im Kwon-taek, actress Han Ji-min, actor Ji Jin-hee, retired baseball hero Yang Joon-hyeok, female soccer star Yeo Min-ji, and renowned chef Edward Kwon.
The organizing committee of the G20 Summit held a supporters' event on Thursday at COEX in Seoul, and appointed 14 celebrities and the two bands. Sakong Il, who chairs the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, said the aim is "to generate more interest and participation from people as well as to boost the confidence of Korea as the chair country of the summit."
selected as star supporters for the upcoming G20 summit,
Girl group 2NE1 pose after being selected as star supporters for the upcoming G20 Summit in Seoul on Thursday. /Newsis Girl group 2NE1 pose after being selected as star supporters for the upcoming G20 Summit in Seoul on Thursday. /Newsis
Other stars on the supporters' list are fashion designer Lee Sang-bong, photographer Kim Jung-man, Olympic gold medalist speed skaters Mo Tae-bum and Lee Sang-hwa, musical actor Nam Kyung-joo, and actresses Jo Yeo-jung, Kim So-eun, and Park Bo-young.
Im Kwon-taek said, "Korea's reputation in the world has been greatly enhanced, and Korean films can compete with foreign films on the world stage. I will cheer for the successful hosting of the G20 Summit, which is an excellent opportunity to improve Korea's image not only in politics and economy, but also in culture, arts and society in general."
KUALA LUMPUR: South Korea's Jimin Kang claimed a thrilling one-stroke victory in the inaugural Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia after three birdies in the last four holes on Sunday.
A big crowd at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club witnessed Kang calmly roll in a 12-foot downhill putt on the final hole to shoot a six-under-par 65 to finish a stroke ahead of LPGA Hall of Famer Juli Inkster.
Kang's blistering final round left her with a nine-under-par 204 total and her second LPGA victory, following her win at the 2005 LPGA Corning Classic.
"Speechless," said Kang afterwards. "And that's not that easy to do for me.
"I played solid. I hit a lot of putts. As you guys can tell, my score was good enough to win a tournament, and you know, it's been a while. So I'm trying to soak this in. I can't believe I won."
Inkster's second-place was her best of the season thanks to her own brilliant stretch of birdies at 13, 15, 16 and 17, the last of which put her into the outright lead.
However, she pushed her second shot into the right greenside bunker at the 18th, nearly holing out from the sand before having to settle for a two-putt bogey.
Combined with an 18th hole birdie from Kang, playing a group behind Inkster, it was enough for victory, or at least a shot at a play-off, to slip away.
"When I miss it, I miss it right," Inkster said of her final approach. "It was a three-quarter shot and I left it out there. I played well all day."
First-round leader Mike Miyazato of Japan and Maria Hjorth of Sweden shared third at six-under 207, with Korea's Meena Lee alone in fifth another shot back.
Meanwhile, American Cristie Kerr could take over the top position in the Rolex Rankings as a result of her superb final round.
The current world number two began the final round tied for 29th and, teeing off on the 10th hole, registered four birdies in her first six holes of the day.
Although she added a bogey at 18 (her ninth hole) birdies at three and five saw her finish at five-under-par 66 and in eighth position.
"It would feel great to take over number one this week," said Kerr.
"It's been so close the last four tournaments. It came down to one putt in Alabama and last week I had a great finish, but just wasn't close enough.
"I've been thinking about this race all year. It's coming down to a putt here or there and it cannot get any closer."
Korea's Shin Jiyai, who finished tied for sixth with Christina Kim, is projected to take the number two spot in the rankings, while Ai Miyazato, who could only finish tied for 28th, could fall to number three.
YEONGAM, South Jeolla Province Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso snatched the inaugural Korean Grand Prix in the rain soaked Yeongam circuit that saw a slew of spin-outs and crashes.
It was a scrappy affair with this season’s drivers’ championship leader Mark Webber crashing out just a lap after the safety car gave clearance for the race to restart after a 40-minute delay.
The Red Bull ace spun, hit the wall and drifted into the path of German Nico Rosberg at lap 18 in drizzle.
The crash put an end to the Aussie’s charge for the the 2010 championship.
As if mirroring his teammate’s misfortune, Germany’s Sebastian Vettel spun out at lap 47, squandering the lead he had taken from Webber.
Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Spain leaps in the air on the podium as he celebrates his win at the Korean Grand Prix on the Korean International Circuit in Yeongam on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News)
Alonso seized the opportunity, charging ahead to take the top spot with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in second.
This is the Spaniard’s 26th career win as he tore through a slippery track that claimed several machines early on, making it clear that the race was more a game of survival.
Alonso along with Vettel was 14 points adrift of leader Webber in the drivers’ championship. He now leads with 231 points, with Webber on 220 and Hamilton on 210 points. Just a pair of races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi remain in the current season.
Just before the start of the race, the circuit had been hit by rain that began Saturday night.
Marred by rain, several teams also raised the possibility of the race being unable to go the full distance. Alonso was fuming during the practice run led by the safety car.
“It’s the worst conditions I ever drove a car,” said the two-time world champion over his radio during the first attempt to start the race going.
“It’s impossible. I don’t even know where is Webber.”
Reigning world champion Jenson Button echoed Alonso’s frustrations saying over the team’s radio “You can’t even see the front tires when you’re on the straight,” and added “You’re just driving completely blind, waiting to hit something.”
Race director Charlie Whiting initially ordered a 10-minute delay before abandoning plans for a regular start and dispatching the safety car which led the machines off the starting grid.
The decision was understandable due to the conditions. It also denied fans a thrilling start to a key race in the season’s battle among five title contenders.
The turnout was less than stellar as large blocks of seating were empty.
All around the tracks were incomplete patches of construction and columns supporting the bridge over the starting grid had yet to be painted showing raw concrete.
The race’s local promoters Korea Auto Valley Operation are contracted to host races until 2016 with a five-year option after which would take the race until 2021.
Florida pastor says he was 'lied to' over supposed deal to move Islamic centre away from Ground Zero
Terry Jones had initially announced that the bookburning was cancelled, but later said the plan was only 'suspended'. Photograph: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
The Florida pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Qur'an last night said he had only "suspended" the event because he was "lied to" over a deal to call it off in exchange for a promise to move a planned Islamic centre away from New York's Ground Zero.
The extremist preacher appeared to have backed down in the face of condemnation by Barack Obama, the Pentagon, the state department and international outrage, but then backtracked.
Speaking outside his Dove World Outreach Centre church in Gainesville, Florida Terry Jones said: "As of right now, we are not cancelling the event, but we are suspending it."
The confusion over whether the event will take place has done little to quell the global outrage at the prospect of burning of the holy book ofIslam. Around 10,000 Afghans took to the streets chanting anti-US slogans in a protest today in the province of Badakhshan - the largest demonstration so far.
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, expressed hope Jones would not proceed.
"The Qur'an is in the hearts and minds of all ... Muslims but the affront against the holy book is a humiliation to the people," Karzai told reporters at his palace after prayers. "We are hopeful that he gives up this affront and should not even think about it."
The president of Indonesia, home of the world's largest Muslim population, called on the US to ensure that no burnings took place.
"I continue to urge the government and the people of the United Statesto ensure the prevention of such an incomprehensible, irrational and immoral act," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a speech.
Jones claimed he was not bowing to the pressure from the White House and abroad but had taken the decision because of the agreement. However, it emerged last night that Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, had phoned Jones and asked him not carry out his threat.
Jones also claimed he was planning to fly to New York to discuss the proposed cultural centre's new location with the New York imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.
But the imam, in a statement issued last night, said he had not spoken to Jones.
"I am glad that Pastor Jones has decided not to burn any Qur'ans. However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones," he said. "I am surprised by their announcement. We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter."
There was a collective sigh of relief worldwide as Jones announced at a press conference that he was dropping his plan to set fire to 20 copies of the Qur'an. The burning had been planned to coincide with the ninth anniversary tomorrow of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Interpol, the Pentagon and others warned that such an act would provoke violent acts around the world by outraged Muslims. There were protests in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries yesterday at the proposed burning.
As tensions mounted, claims emerged from Germany that Jones was dismissed from a church he founded there after accusations that he mistreated his followers.
Jones showed signs of being unnerved by the mounting pressure on Wednesday and hinted at a climbdown. In an interview with USA Today, he said he was rethinking the plan and would do so more seriously if Obama or anyone else from the government was to approach him directly.
But the White House refused to contact him directly, suggesting that if the president engaged with a pastor with a flock numbering about 30, copycats might be encouraged. Interviewed on breakfast TV yesterday before the cancellation, President Obama spoke of "a recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaida. "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities," he told ABC's Good Morning America show.
The only unresolved issue is Jones's claim of a deal with Muslims in New York. Jones told reporters: "The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday." He was accompanied by Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. He added: "I, with [Musri], will be flying up [to New York] on Saturday to meet with [Feisal Abdul Rauf] at the Ground Zero mosque."
He insisted that Musri had guaranteed the Islamic centre would be moved. "I asked him three times, and I have witnesses," Jones said. "If it's not moved, then I think Islam is a very poor example of religion. I think that would be very pitiful. I do not expect that."
The Pentagon's fear was that the burning of Qur'ans could result in retaliatory attacks on US soldiers serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Interpol earlier yesterday issued a blunt warning that "violent attacks on innocent people would follow" if the stunt went ahead.
In Pakistan, protesters burned an American flag and displayed a sign in English reading: "If Qur'an is burned it would be beginning of destruction of America."
Sarah Palin linked the threat to the plan to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Centre attack. "People have a constitutional right to burn a Qur'an if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero," she wrote in a Facebook message.
Meanwhile, reports emerged yesterday of Jones's mission in Germany, where he established the Christian Community of Cologne in 1982 after having "received a sign from God". However, when Jones left Cologne 26 years later, it was as a disgraced preacher who had allegedly forced members to give him a percentage of their earnings, made them work for little or no money and caused the breakup of families and friendships. He reportedly also faked a title as doctor of theology, for which he was fined, and was eventually dismissed by the church board in 2008.
Andrew Schäfer, an official sect monitor for the Protestant church in the Rhine region, who has closely observed the activities of the community, said Jones had "enormous manipulative potential" and believed his failure in Germany had led to his increased desire to achieve notoriety in Florida. "He has clearly not been able to cope with the immense loss of his power and significance," said Schäfer.
Among the numerous reports of the ways in which Jones used to manipulate members were demands for money, as well as complete commitment to the community. Members were reportedly made to work in the community's "Lisa Jones" shops, named after his first wife, which sold secondhand clothes and furniture. They apparently worked long hours, lived on next to no wages, and had no health insurance – a requirement all German employers have to fulfil. They were forced to review relationships with family and friends and in some cases to break up with partners.
(source:guardian.co.uk)
Celebration coincides with 9/11 anniversary this year
While some Muslim groups in the United States are debating scaling back one of their most important festivals, leaders in Ottawa's Muslim community say they plan to mark this weekend's Eid ul-Fitr as usual, with a large public celebration and numerous smaller events.
The controversy in the U.S. stems from the convergence of two important dates: the ninth anniversary of the deadly attacks on New York and Washington -- perpetrated by terrorists in the name of Islam -- and the annual celebrations marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.
Amid growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, some leaders there wish to avoid the appearance of Muslims celebrating while the country marks the anniversary of a national tragedy.
In Ottawa, though, the community is more focused on the potential backlash against Muslims in the wake of the August arrests of four Muslim men accused of terror-related activities, says Salah Basalamah, spokesman for the advocacy group Muslim Presence.
"We've been discussing the arrests that happened in Ottawa, not this anniversary," Basalamah says.
"There is no intention to be insensitive towards the families (of victims of) Sept. 11 or towards the American people. Eid is a religious commemoration, not a political commemoration."
Basalamah is part of a group of local leaders working to create a co-ordinated response to the terror arrests, organizing meetings with the police and community members to address fears and concerns.
"We've been very clear on our position on the events of Sept. 11. We have denounced these acts and we are absolutely in solidarity with any victim of any unlawful act," Basalamah says.
"At the same time, we are caught in this situation in Ottawa right now where very important accusations are being made towards those young people. We want to make sure all rights are respected for due process of law and the presumption of innocence."
Eid and 9/11 have not converged before because the Islamic calendar follows the cycle of the moon and varies from year to year in the Gregorian calendar. Ramadan begins when the moon is sighted and ends 29 or 30 days later with Eid ul-Fitr, which typically involves visiting family and friends as well as some public celebrations.
In Ottawa this year, the largest Eid party will be held Saturday at the Carleton University Fieldhouse, where there will be children's activities, shows, ethnic food and competitions.
The polarizing debate over the proposal to build an Islamic community centre and mosque near the World Trade Centre site in New York, and the widely-publicized -- now possibly cancelled -- plans for a "Koran burning" by a Christian fundamentalist church in Florida, have some Muslim leaders there feeling uneasy about having a public party on the anniversary of an event so closely linked with Islamic terrorism in the eyes of many fellow citizens.
In the U.S., the annual Muslim Family Day -- celebrated in several cities at the Six Flags Amusement Parks -- has been postponed by a week to avoid coinciding with 9/11.
One of the founders of Muslim Family Day, Tariq Amanullah, was killed on 9/11 while working in the World Trade Centre.
Imam Zijad Delic, the Ottawa-based executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, says scaling back activities during Eid sends the wrong message about Islam's place in Western society.
"If people get into discourse of this nature I think we are accepting that terrorism is identified with Islam, and this goes against the logic we are trying to express," Delic says.
"We are part of this society and we are affected by any terror activities, in fact more than others: first as citizens, and secondly as Muslims in Western society, because of some sort of misunderstanding that all of us are painted with the same brush.
"We don't feel we have to apologize for the nonsense of a few, just like other religious groups do not apologize for attacks or abuse from their people," Delic says.
Coverage of Koran Case Stirs Questions on Media Role
Steve Johnson/European Pressphoto Agency
News media coverage of plans by Terry Jones to hold a Koran burning grew over the summeE
A renegade pastor and his tiny flock set fire to a Koran on a street corner, and made sure to capture it on film. And they were ignored.That stunt took place in 2008, involving members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., an almost universally condemned group of fundamentalists who also protest at military funerals.
But plans for a similar stunt by another fringe pastor, Terry Jones, have garnered worldwide news media attention this summer, attention that peaked Thursday when he announced he was canceling — and later, that he had only “suspended” — what he had dubbed International Burn a Koran Day. It had been scheduled for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Unlike the Koran-burning by Westboro Baptist, Mr. Jones’s planned event in Gainesville, Fla., coincided with the controversy over the proposed building of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan near ground zero and a simmering summerlong debate about the freedoms of speech and religion.Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.
By the middle of this week, the planned Koran burning was the lead story on some network newscasts, and topic No. 1 on cable news — an extraordinary amount of attention for a marginal figure with a very small following. On Thursday, President Obamacondemned Mr. Jones’s plan, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that there were “more people at his press conferences than listen to his sermons,” in a bit of media criticism.
Mr. Jones’s plan, announced in July, slowly gained attention in August, particularly overseas. It became a top story in the United States this week after protests against Mr. Jones in Afghanistan and after the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned that the Koran burning could endanger troops.
“Before there were riots and heads of states talking about him, it could have been a couple of paragraphs in a story about Sept. 11 commemorations,” Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of The Associated Press, said Thursday. “It’s beyond that now.”
In some ways, this week’s events were the culmination of a year’s worth of hateful statements and stunts by Mr. Jones and the few dozen members of his church.
Mr. Jones started to make noise in Gainesville in the summer of 2009, when he posted a sign outside his church that read “Islam is of the devil.” The Gainesville Sun (which is owned by The New York Times Company) wrote about the sign, under the headline “Anti-Islam church sign stirs up community outrage.”
He told The Sun that the sign would not be his last.
The newspaper soon published an investigation into what it called the church’s “financial abuses,” which included a profit-making eBay furniture sales business operating on the church’s property.
The congregation’s protests continued last fall, when some children from the church wore anti-Islam shirts to school, prompting another article by The Sun, which was picked up by The Associated Press and republished by outlets like USA Today and Al Arabiya, an Arabic language news network.
People with the same anti-Islam shirts sometimes roamed the University of Floridacampus in Gainesville, said Fiona Mc Laughlin, a professor at the university, prompting a counterprotest with T-shirts that read, “Ignorance is of the devil.”
The church “never really rested after that first billboard,” said Jacki Levine, the managing editor of The Sun. She said the newspaper’s staff members had repeatedly discussed how to be “responsible” in its coverage — “We walked as carefully as we could walk.”
Islam was not Mr. Jones’s only target. Church members also held protests against Craig Lowe, an openly gay man who was elected mayor of Gainesville in April.
Mr. Jones’s announcement about the Koran burning gained only a little attention at first, with a single short article published by a Web site called Religion News Service. That article was subsequently mentioned by bigger sites, like Yahoo, and by the end of the July Mr. Jones had been booked on CNN, where the host Rick Sanchez called his plan “crazy” but added, “At least he has got the guts to come on this show and face off.”
Alarmed by negative mentions about Gainesville in overseas news outlets, Mr. Lowe released a statement Aug. 3 labeling Mr. Jones’s church a “tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community.”
News executives said the proposed burning took on a greater significance after the protests in Afghanistan and in other Muslim countries. In Kabul last Sunday, up to 500 people attended a protest at which Mr. Jones was burned in effigy, according to The A.P.
That, too, is when Ms. Mc Laughlin took notice. With 11 other professors, she wrote a column for The Sun condemning the plan titled “The world is watching.”
“We just saw everything escalating,” she said Thursday, citing the “sum effect” of all the coverage and the ensuing reactions. (The New York Times wrote a substantial article about Mr. Jones on August 26.)
On Thursday, before Mr. Jones suspended his plans, The A.P. determined that it would not distribute pictures of Korans being burned, restating a policy not to cover events that are “gratuitously manufactured to provoke and offend.”
“There are lots of other similarly offensive images that we choose not to run all the time,” Ms. Carroll said. “Most people don’t know that because, of course, we don’t run them.”
Before the suspension, CNN and Fox News Channel said they would not show any images of a Koran being burned.
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, said in an e-mail message that the newspaper had “no policy against publishing things that might offend someone — lots of people are offended by lots of things — but we try to refrain from giving widespread offense unless there is some offsetting journalistic purpose.”
“A picture of a burning book contributes nothing substantial to a story about book-burning, so the offense seems entirely gratuitous,” Mr. Keller continued. “The freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish.”
The episode has given rise to at least a little soul-searching within news organizations. Chris Cuomo, an ABC News anchor, wrote Thursday afternoon on Twitter, “I am in the media, but think media gave life to this Florida burning ... and that was reckless.”
(source:nytimes)
Terry Jones statement in full
US pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has called off his controversial Koran-burning event.
Here is his statement in full:
"This has been for us a very, very difficult, trying time. We have been in much thought and prayer over this whole period.
A lot of times we were asked what would it take for us to call this thing off. We have thought it over many times. We felt very convinced that we should do this.
We thought about what would have to happen for us to call our event off. As we prayed about that, in the past we did have one idea.
This idea we put out in prayer to God. That if he would want us to call this off, if we have accomplished our goal, then our thought was the American people do not as a whole want the mosque at the Ground Zero location.
That if they were willing to either cancel the mosque at the Ground Zero location, or if they were willing to move it away from that location, we would consider that sign from God.
We have, or he has [indicating Iman Muhammad Musri, standing beside him], been in contact with the imam in New York City.
I, with the imam here, will be flying up there on Saturday to meet the imam at the Ground Zero mosque.
He has agreed to move the location. That of course cannot happen overnight. But he has agreed to move that.
We felt that that would be a sign that God would want us to do it.
The American people do not want the mosque there. And of course Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran.
The imam has agreed to move the mosque. We have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday. And on Saturday I will be flying up there to meet with him."
(source:bbc)
Terry Jones won't be the last Qur'an burning publicity hound
Terry Jones outplayed the US media with his plan to burn the Qur'an. But the media may not fall for a similar nutcase
Terry Jones in the media spotlight for his Qur'an burning publicity stunt. Photograph: Scott Audette/Reuters
Terry Jones, the swivel-eyed pastor who attracted worldwide notoriety for his threat to burn the Qur'an on the anniversary of September 11, may or may not have a deal. But let's hope he has burst the Qur'an-burning bubble for the rest of America.
Based on his bizarre press conference on Thursday, Jones thinks he struck an agreement to move the site of the Park 51 Muslim cultural centre and mosque away from its current location, which is not very close to the site of the World Trade Centre in New York City.
Latest reports suggest that no such thing was agreed but that won't matter to Jones. This way he gets to save face, extend his 15 minutes of fame a little longer, all without actually burning any Qur'ans. No doubt he'll rail against Muslim perfidy when the mosque doesn't move – but so what?
Jones's threats will be subject to the law of diminishing returns. Next time he threatens to do burn a Qur'an – and I fear there will be a next time – he'll be handled with much more caution by the US media, which has made itself look ridiculous in being outfoxed by the crackpot pastor of a miniscule church in the swamps of Florida.
The most significant news yesterday, prior to Jones's decision to scrap the burning, came from Fox News. The Baltimore Sun's TV critic David Zurawik asked the cable news network if it would show the Qur'an burning. Michael Clemente, senior vice president at Fox News, said it would not cover it, either live, in video or still photography, adding:
"He's one guy in the middle of the woods with 50 people in his congregation who's decided to try, I gather, to bring some attention to himself."
CNN also said it wouldn't show any images of the Qur'an being burned. Then the Associated Press set out some strict guidelines for its staff, stating in an internal memo: "Should the event happen on Saturday, the AP will not distribute images or audio that specifically show Qurans being burned, and will not provide detailed text descriptions of the burning."
Then NBC announced it would film the event but not show live coverage, and decide later on what footage it would use.
All in all, an outbreak of common sense.
By now, though, every crackpot and lunatic in America will have seen Jones's success and be ready to ape it. But their very craziness may be their undoing.
One such group that says it plans to burn some Qur'ans is the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas, easily the most hated church in America. For whatever insane doctrinal reasons, the tiny WBC protests outside funerals of US soldiers killed in battle, holding signs saying "God hates fags". They did the same thing at the funeral of former president Gerald Ford. Where ever one or two TV cameras are gathered together, so the WBC will be among them.
These days the WBC's antics get no coverage. In fact, in announcing it was to burn Qur'ans, the WBC said it had already burned some. No one cared. It says it also plans to burn an American flag at the same time (I'm not making this up). No one cares.
Qur'an burning may have stepped into that small set of things that are too crazy even for America.
(source:guardian.co.uk)
Koran burning cancelled,Terry Jones,
The Koran burning stunt that threatened to ignite religious tensions around the world was called off last night.
US pastor Terry Jones cancelled the event on condition that controversial plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York were axed.
Mr Jones, who runs the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church, claimed Muslim leaders had agreed to move the location of the Islamic centre.
He said: "We have done an excellent job. This is a victory for America."
But Sharif El-Gamal, who is behind the proposals to build the 13-storey centre near the site where Muslim terrorists killed 3,000 people in 2001, denied that any talks had taken place and said the mosque would go ahead as planned.
There was no official confirmation last night about a deal but Imam Muhammad Musri, of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, talked with the pastor and hinted an agreement had been reached.
Pastor Jones said: "If they were willing to cancel the mosque at the Ground Zero location or willing to move the location, we would consider that a sign from God. The Muslim people have agreed to move the mosque and we have agreed not to burn the Koran.
"If it's not moved, then I think Islam is a very poor example of religion. That would be pitiful. I do not expect that."
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I m am Musri thanked the church in Gainesville, Florida, for "defusing the situation". Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "This unacceptable act would have been dangerous, destructive and fundamentally wrong."
The U-turn happened after Pastor Jones came under huge pressure to cancel the Koran burning.
There were fears it would lead to terrorist reprisals and had resulted in protesters burning US flags in Pakistan.
Barack Obama said yesterday: "This is a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan.
"It could increase the recruitment of individuals willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities. I hope he understands what he is proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans."
And Interpol said: "If the proposed Koran burning goes ahead, there is a strong likelihood that violent attacks on innocent people would follow."
Tycoon Donald Trump joined the row yesterday by offering to buy out one of the investors who owns the site where the mosque is due to be built.
A condition of the offer is the centre is moved at least five streets further away from Ground Zero.
