By Saeed Khan, a former president of the Muslim Association of North Central Florida. Mr. Khan is a Gainesville, Fla., resident of more than thirty years where Pastor Terry Jones has drawn widespread attention for a planned burning of Qurans.
The Dove World Outreach Center was established in 1986 in suburban Gainesville, Fla., where its current pastor, Mr. Terry Jones, assumed his role in 1996. America was attacked by a fringe group of terrorists on September 11, 2001. Almost eight years later, Pastor Jones decided that "Islam is of the devil" and this year he wants to burn the Quran, the Muslim's holy book, on the anniversary of 9/11.
What has happened during these years that convinced Pastor Jones to take these actions? Why did he not come out earlier against Islam? 
As he told The New York Times, Pastor Jones has not read the Quran and he is not familiar with any aspect of Islam. Who is speaking in Jones's ear and using him to push their agenda? When it was first conceived in 2009, the building of the community center on 51 Park in New York City was not strongly opposed. In fact, all local authorities supported it. Even Fox News contributor Laura Ingram was for it. "I like what you are doing," she told Daisy Khan, proponent of the center. All of a sudden the dialogue has changed; now the center is being referred to as a mosque, to be built on the hallowed grounds of the World Trade Center. No matter that it is not a mosque and the site is not the World Trade Center but rather an empty blighted building two blocks away. Again I ask, what happened?
I maintain that these events are the result of old fashioned politics. In the absence of an alternative plan to improve the economy and win the wars, opponents of President Obama want to create an issue. Because his faith was already in question, his opponents want to make an issue about his purported faith. This tactic appears to be working. According to the Pew Research Center's national survey conducted this month, 18 percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim, a 7 percent increase since 2009. Now that they have maligned and criticized the faith, the next step is to instigate problems. Former House speaker Mr. Gingrich, commenting on Park 51, compared Islam to Nazism. "Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There is no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center." Mr. Gingrich even planned to join Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders in New York on the anniversary of 9/11, an affront to the memory of Muslims who lost their lives in the World Trade Center on that terrible day.
conomist poll that reveals 34 percent of those surveyed "say there are some places in the U.S. where it is not appropriate to build mosques, though it would be appropriate for other religions to build houses of worship."
ach Center has planned a burning of Qurans to mark the forthcoming 9/11 anniversary. Pastor Terry Jones has dubbed the event "International Burn a Koran Day," and 
f course you have the right to build a mosque, but it is insensitive to build it there."
ous freedom in America, for native-born and immigrant alike. He commendably stated, "As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan."