A defiant Terry Jones says he plans to protest next week at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn despite a judge’s order that he stay from the mosque for three years. The Quran-burning pastor from Florida said his rights were violated Friday by a judge due to the influence of Islamic law.

“We plan to protest next week in front of the Islamic Center,” Pastor Terry Jones said today. “The arrests, the whole proceedings, were a definite violation of our Constitutional rights. As a matter of fact, we were arrested and had not even committed a crime. It is a complete violation of our First Amendment right of freedom of speech. It was clearly influenced by the mosque.”

Jones had wanted to protest Friday against jihad and sharia outside the Islamic Center on Friday, but was thwarted by authorities. The center is the largest mosque in metro Detroit, a region with a sizable Muslim population.

On Friday, Judge Mark Somers ordered that Jones and Pastor Wayne Sapp be remanded to jail after a jury determined they would be likely to breach the peace. In his decision Judge Somers set a $1 cash bond for Jones and Sapp, and also said Jones and Sapp could not go to the mosque or adjacent property for three years. The only exception would be if the leadership of the mosque, such as its board, decided it would be ok for him to visit, Somers said.

Jones said that was an example of the influence of sharia, or Islamic law, in Dearborn. “Sharia is much closer than we thought,” Jones said. “The judge even made a statement, that if the mosque elders and leadership would have desired the restraints placed on us of not going near the mosque be lifted, then he would have taken that into consideration. Thus proving that this whole thing is a direct violation of freedom of speech and that they are favoring the religion of Islam.”

Detroit Free Press, 23 April 2011

See also “Jones’ Jesus stunt and his inadvertent supporters”, Weblog of Dawud Walid, 23 April 2011