A man who planned to burn a Quran in Amarillo, Texas, on Saturday didn't get very far when his copy of the Muslim holy book was snatched out of his hands by a skateboard-toting 23-year-old, according to local media reports.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported that Jacob Isom grabbed a Quran from the hands of evangelist David Grisham, director of Christian activist group Repent Amarillo, as he argued with residents about burning the Quran in a local park.
Local television station KFDA-TV reported that a group of protesters made up of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists gathered at Sam Houston Park in order to challenge Grisham's plan of setting the Quran on fire in a grill.
"I snuck up behind him and took his Quran," Isom told KFDA-TV. "He said something about burnin the Quran. I said, 'Dude, you have no Quran,' and ran off."
The station reported that the Quran was doused with kerosene.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported that Isom gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo afterwards.
A Facebook group called "Amarillo Citizens Against Repent Amarillo" posted a picture of what appeared to be Isom with his skateboard standing next to the Muslim leader, who was holding the Quran.
Isom was wearing a T-shirt that had the words "I'm in Repent Amarillo No Joke" written on the back, the Globe-News reported.
Isom said that Grisham was "just trying to start Holy Wars," the Globe-News reported. Grisham said he was exercising his right to freedom of speech.
Grisham reportedly left the park without burning the Quran. "I kind of expected the reaction," he told the Amarillo Globe-News.
His thwarted Quran-burning event came on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and fell on the same day that a controversial Florida pastor had planned to burn Qurans in protest to the building of an Islamic center in New York City.
Pastor Terry Jones called off his plan on Saturday, following an outcry from a number of high-profile personalities, celebrities, the White House and General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who said it would endanger U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
