Pastor Terry Jones told NBC's TODAY show on Saturday that his church in Gainesville, Fla., would not burn Qurans in protest to the building of an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
"We will definitely not burn the Quran, no," he said.
"Not today, not ever," he said when pressed about whether his planned demonstration might happen at a later date. He explained that it would not happen even if the Islamic center is built near ground zero.
Jones flew to New York to appear on NBC's TODAY show and told interviewer Carl Quintanilla that there was no meeting set up with New York Imam Faisal Rauf.
He said he hoped a meeting would take place, however.
"Even though we have not burned one Quran, we have gotten over 100 death threats," Jones said. "We feel that God is telling us to stop, and we also hope that ... maybe that will open up the door to maybe be able to talk to the imam."
Jones said that his church's goal was "to expose that there is an element of Islam that is very dangerous and very radical."
He told NBC that "we have definitely accomplished that mission."
A "Burn a Koran Day" banner outside his church has been taken down.
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