Pastor Terry Jones. Photograph by Mark Taylor
A controversial American pastor, who found international fame from threatening to burn a number of Korans in 2010 and promoting the anti-Islamic Innocence of Muslims film in 2012, has been arrested driving a pickup truck towing a trailer carrying a large barbecue grill filled with 2,998 kerosene-soaked copies of the Muslim holy book.
Terry Jones, pastor of the non-denominational Dove World Outreach Center, had been planning to burn the books on the anniversary of the 09/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, but was arrested on charges of illegally transporting fuel and openly carrying a gun.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told the local Orlando Sentinel, that Jones was welcome to express his first amendment rights, however he would not be permitted to break the law, saying:
On September 11, he arrived in Polk County, violated the law, and our detectives arrested him and booked him into the county jail just as he was informed.