Koran-burning anti-Obama pastor Terry Jones is to run for the US presidency as a fringe candidate for the second time.
Jones, who heads the group Stand Up America Now, was a self-declared independent in the 2012 election and is also listed as a candidate for 2016.
The Politico website has him down as a fringe "front-runner" for the campaign's most controversial candidate.
Jones, who in 2013 broke with most of the people at his former Dove World Outreach Centre in Florida and now runs a furniture removal company with his brother elsewhere in Florida, has achieved international notoriety for his Koran burning activities. He has been rebuked by President Barack Obama among others and was once refused entry to the UK.
Jones told Politico that his opinion of Obama was as low as it had always been and that his aim was to save America. "I'm pretty devastated by the condition of America, the moral condition, the spiritual condition, the economical condition," he said. He admitted that winning would require "some type of major miracle."
Samir Khatib, the spokesperson for the Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton, told My Sunset Coast that the idea of Jones running for president was laughable.
"I think it's a joke. The American people need to have somebody with more substance and intelligence and knowledge to be a president. I think it's a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of his effort."
He said Jones should be ignored.
"Warmonger. Hatemonger. He hates people. To even think of becoming the president of the most prestigious countries in the world, the most powerful country, is an insult to the American people. So let's all concentrate on having people with some intelligence to put our country together to building community, to make the country more successful than it is."
Jones responded: "I'm running for president. Vote for me."
