BREAKING: Pyro Pastor Terry Jones issues 2-Hour Deadline to Ground Zero Mosque Imam (updated) Deadline passes; now what?

Video of presser at the link.

Whether he’s an out-and-out nutcase or a calculating publicity whore, you have to give him credit for the Chutzpah.

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The pastor at the centre of the Koran-burning row has given a New York Imam two hours to contact him about plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

Pastor Terry Jones and his colleague Pastor K A Paul read out two telephone numbers live on television and urged the Imam to contact them as soon as possible.

They did not say what would happen if he failed to get in touch by the time the deadline expires just after 8.30 tonight.

Sky News' US correspondent Robert Nisbet, who was at the news conference, said: "This is absolutely extraordinary.

"It appears the pastor has reconsidered his earlier deal over the New York mosque."

He added: "Worryingly, none of the US cable networks showed the press conference - so Imam Rauf may not have seen it!"

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Sky News was apparently the only major news outlet with a crew at the presser, but local outlets were present and probably uplinked it to their networks.  And I’m sure that even if Fox News and the also-rans weren’t there, Imam Rauf got word.

I guess we’ll see what happens at 4:00 EDT.

Update: Meanwhile, Reuters is saying that the Imam has not agreed to meet with Pastor Jones, and ABCNews says “oh, hell no” Jones will not be flying to New York as a guest of the network.  This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Update II: The Wall Street Journal site has a more in depth article on the deadline, which passed approximately 10 minutes ago, and adds this little twist:

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At a press conference outside his church earlier Friday, Mr. Jones said he would travel to New York with Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. Mr. Jones said he planned to meet on Saturday with Mr. Rauf. Mr. Jones said he didn't have a scheduled meeting with Mr. Rauf and wasn't sure the imam even knew he was coming.

Rob Schenck, of the National Clergy Council in Washington, D.C., said on Friday he was helping arrange the pastor's desired meeting with the iman. He said he hasn't been in touch with the imam directly, but has been communication through high-level Islamic intermediaries.

After Mr. Jones issued his deadline to the imam, Mr. Schenck said: "This creates a new problem and complicates our role in it." He added: "Muslim culture is not given to deadlines and ultimatums." Mr. Schenck still plans to go to New York himself to meet with the imam.

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Chalk it up to cultural ignorance, or chalk it up to calculation.

Update III:  The deadline has passed.  We wonder what happens now and wait with bated breath…

Update IV: And here we go.

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The pastor at the centre of the Koran-burning row says the imam behind plans to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero has ignored his deadline to get in touch.

Pastor Terry Jones and his colleague Pastor K A Paul had given the imam two hours to call them on one of two telephone numbers read out live on television.

They deadline passed just after 8.15 pm without "any word from the imam or his team."

Dr Hall said he was disappointed at the iman's silence but still hoped to fly to New York to meet him.

He revealed Pastor Jones had agreed not to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday as planned in the hope of finding a peaceful solution to their grievances about the location of the Islamic Centre.

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There is still no word yet whether the Quran BBQ is on again, off again, or what.

On the Ground Zero Mosque and now the Quran burning issue, Obama whiffs

At his August 13 Ramadan dinner speech, Obama stated his support for a new Mosque to be build at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Less than a day later, he was walking back the support in one of those off-teleprompter moments.  He has since been silent, letting his minions and mouthpieces address media questions while the controversy storms across America.  Most polls show that a solid majority think building the mosque at Ground Zero is a bad idea, even though the same polls show Americans believe Imam Rauf and his supporters have a First Amendment right to do so.

As President of the United States, Obama serves all of the American people.  Not a favored constituency or a misunderstood minority.  All of us.  At issue are some very heated emotions that threaten to divide Americans, rather than unite them.  He has a political, if not moral responsibility to resolve the matter one way or the other.  Whether he has people do the dealing behind the scenes or he take a high profile stab at mediating a relocation of the construction site. But he shows absolutely no signs of willing to spend the political capital to do so.

Meanwhile, down in rural Florida just outside of Gainesville, a fundamentalist Christian pastor is scheduling a Quran burning on the anniversary of 9/11, in protest of the Muslims who used its teachings to attack the United States.  Again, no red-blooded American would dispute his right to hold such a holy barbecue, but neither would they agree that such an outright insult to Muslims is provocative and unnecessarily incites division.  Again, Obama weighs in, explaining that it’s a bad idea.  The Holy Book Barbecue pastor says he’d reconsider his protest if the White House asked him to, but just like the GZM controversy, Obama seems unwilling to step in and get involved.  Why?

Isn’t this what leaders are supposed to do?  Isn’t a leader supposed to resolve matters that divide those he leads?  Of course he is.  George W. Bush, in resolving the stem cell research issue, took the time to consult advisers (spiritual, medical and political) and decided on a course of action.  That action didn’t satisfy everybody, but in light of the current President’s inability to provide any leadership or guidance, Bush’s stem cell XO seems Solomonesque in its wisdom and discretion.

Obama has had two opportunities this summer to show that kind of leadership courage and reasonableness, and has whiffed—badly—both times.  He needs to speak directly with Imam Rauf and Pastor Terry Jones and ask them both to stop trying to divide the people of this great Nation.  As a famous man once said, just having the right to do something doesn’t make doing it right, and neither of these men are doing the right thing.  Obama needs to do the right thing, too.  He needs to grow a pair of balls and resolve these matters before someone takes the issues far too seriously and starts hurting people.