Terry Jones, the hate-spewing Florida pastor who oversaw a Koran burning last month, said he wasn't to blame for the deadly demonstrations that rocked a United Nations compound in Afghanistan on Friday.
"We do not feel responsible," Jones told ABC's Nightline on Friday, speaking about his Gainesville church. "We feel more that the Muslims and radical Islam uses that as an excuse. If they didn't use us as an excuse, they would use a different excuse," Jones said.
His Dove World Outreach Center held a mock trial that found the Islamic holy book "guilty" and burned the Koran in front of a crowd of approximately 50 people on March 20.
It sparked violent protests in Afghanistan, where an angry mob over-ran a U.N. mission in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The death toll on Saturday climbed to at least 10 with 83 people wounded.
The burning, at first, got little press in Afghanistan. But after President Hamid Karzai condemned the burning of the book and religious leaders called for justice in Friday sermons, thousands poured into the streets in several cities to protest.
A spokesman for the governor of Kandahar said the Taliban is using the book burning as an excuse to incite violence. But spokesman for the Interior Ministry said there's no evidence the attack was planned.
The publicity-hungry pastor became infamous when he planned to burn a Koran near Ground Zero on the 9/11 anniversary. He later cancelled the event, after many, including President Obama, urged him against the move.
During the ABC interview, Jones went into detail about his "International Judge the Koran Day.
"We decided to put the Koran on trial," he said. "I was the judge but I did not determine the verdict. I was just a type of referee so that people got their time to defend or condemn the Koran."
He said the "jury" was made of random people from Florida. "If the Koran was found guilty then there were four forms of punishment: burning, shredding, grounding, a firing squad," he said. "The one that the people chose was burning. That is why the Koran was burned after it was found guilty."
President Obama blasted Friday's attacks, which killed at least seven U.N.employees --two of whom were beheaded. He made no mention of Jones.
"We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue," Obama said
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