THE LEDGER
Published: Monday, March 3, 2014 at 1:33 p.m.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20140303/NEWS/140309787
MULBERRY | Snow has delayed today’s roundtable forum on religious intolerance at the renown Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., which was to include three Polk County residents.
Organizers said the event will be rescheduled to April.
Three residents from Polk County were scheduled to speak on their efforts to counter a demonstration in Mulberry by Florida pastor Terry Jones, who planned to burn 2,998 Qurans last Sept. 11.
His efforts to burn the Muslim holy books were thwarted when he was arrested by Polk County Sheriff’s deputies for unlawful conveyance of fuel for pulling a cooker on a trailer filled with kerosene-soaked Qurans. He also was charged with openly carrying a firearm. Both charges remain pending.
Suzanne Carter, Butch Rahman and his 18-year-old son, Curtis, joined with Mike Ghouse, president of the World Muslim Congress in Dallas, to stage a peaceful Unity Day ceremony at the Mulberry Civic Center on Sept. 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
They were to speak today on the importance of a community’s peaceful response to religious intolerance. Carter said they have been invited to return for the forum in April.