Florida Pastor Getting New Car For Not Burning Quran
After becoming the center of a media firestorm in the days before September 11th for his threat to burn copies of the Quran, Florida Pastor Terry Jones is getting a new car:
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey car dealer plans to keep his word after offering Florida pastor Terry Jones a new car if he promised to not burn a Quran.
Car dealer Brad Benson made the offer in one of his dealership’s quirky radio ads, which focus more on current events than cars. But he was surprised when a representative for Jones called to collect the 2011 Hyundai Accent, which retails for $14,200.
“They said unless I was doing false advertising, they would like to arrange to pick up the car,” Benson recalled. At first he thought it was a hoax, so Benson asked Jones to send in a copy of his driver’s license. He did.
Jones, of Gainesville, Fla., never burned a Quran but told The Associated Press on Thursday that the offer of a car was not the reason, saying he learned about the offer a few weeks after Sept. 11.
He said he plans to donate the car to an organization that helps abused Muslim women.
“We are not trying to profit from this. We are not keeping the car for ourselves,” Jones said by telephone from California, where he was taping television appearances.
The pastor will have to pick up the car at Brad Benson Mitsubishi Hyundai in South Brunswick so he can fill out paperwork. No date has been set for the handover.
Well, I suppose it’s good that some good is coming from this whole absurd spectacle.
