Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, who called off a controversial Koran burning event to be held on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist atrocity in return for an assurance by the New York Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, that he wouldn't build a mosque at Ground Zero, has been told that he has been "punked".
The New York Imam had earlier promised to meet Jones in New York and call off the new mosque, on the strength of which Jones and his followers agreed not to burn any copies of the Koran. The promise had been made on live television and repeated by a Florida Imam, Muhammad Musri, who admitted that the planned mosque at Ground Zero was "a clear provocation" and denounced its construction. Musri announced to the media that he and Jones would catch a flight to New York to meet Rauf and discuss ways to bring Christians and Muslims together.
However, after Jones and his followers had thrown away their matches and thereby prevented the burning from going ahead, Rauf sent Jones an email cancelling the meeting and telling him he had been "punked". The word "punked" comes from an MTV programme where actor Ashton Kutcher plays practical jokes on celebrities. It is understood that Rauf had no intention of ever meeting Pastor Jones and just wanted to inconvenience him.
Rauf signed off his email with the words "You've been punked. Muahaha, sucker. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (Allah Akbar)!".
