Imam Muhammad Musri of Orlando had never met the Rev. Terry Jones of Gainesville when he drove up to the Dove World Outreach Center and decided to talk to the Islam-hating pastor who planned to burn 200 Qurans, Musri's religion's sacred text.

First, he had to walk past signs that said "Islam is of the devil" and make his way through the throng of international media gathered outside the church door — only to find that the pastor, his wife, son and an assistant pastor were locked inside, armed with handguns holstered on their hips.

As he waited outside in the heat, Jones' crew argued about searching Musri for weapons before letting him in to a second-floor office. There, sitting across a bare desk and next to a large poster of Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" movie, Musri tried to persuade Jones to call off Saturday's holy-book burning to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary.

After multiple failed attempts at reasoning, Musri finally found common ground — in Jesus.

"I told him, 'Don't listen to the Quran, but listen to Jesus. Where in the Bible does Jesus tell you to do this? Didn't Jesus say that you need to love your neighbors as yourself?' " Musri recalled. "I said 'We are your neighbors. ...There are thousands of us — doctors, professors, engineers, plumbers, you name it, and have we caused your church any harm?' "

And that was the first moment Musri felt as if he was getting through to Jones. It would take a second visit the next day to get him to agree to a temporary truce.

For the 43-year-old Musri, known for trying to build bridges with other faiths and his efforts to inform non-Muslims about the Islamic faith, the olive branch to Jones was a natural extension of his work for more than 15 years in Central Florida.

Musri told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview Friday that he believed "something had to be done" to try to defuse "an international incident" raising tensions throughout the globe.

The president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, headquartered in east Orange County, said he felt "complete responsibility" to intervene on behalf of the estimated 50,000 followers of Islam in Central Florida and the thousands who attend the 10 mosques affiliated with his organization.

"This was not about Pastor Jones or about us, but it's about the people overseas, all over the world, who are watching us," Musri said. "In Florida, we know this guy is just a pastor in a small church, but outside of the U.S., he comes to stand for America's Christians."

Musri, a Lebanese native who came to the U.S. 25 years ago to pursue his education and became a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago, has been outspoken as a moderate Muslim.

He has forcefully condemned the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He supported the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has met with Catholic and evangelical leaders to advocate for common issues such as immigration reform. He has also led local relief efforts for victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, tornadoes in Volusia County and the earthquake in Haiti. And he has been appointed by Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist to serve on interfaith advisory councils with other Christian and Jewish leaders.

But he was walking into an unpredictable situation in visiting the anti-Islam Pastor Jones.

Musri tried to convince Jones that more than a billion people consider the Quran a sacred book containing the word of God. He said Jones answered that he had not read the Quran because "Islam is of the devil" and because it doesn't recognize Jesus as the Son of God. Musri tried to warn him of the possible danger to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the book-burning, but Jones said that was not his responsibility.

They both emerged from that Wednesday meeting conciliatory. After a second meeting Thursday, Jones called off his planned Quran-burning. Later that day, Jones reneged on those plans, calling the imam a liar.

Thomas Wenski, now archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, praised Musri's efforts nonetheless. They had worked together on interfaith and immigration advocacy during Wenski's time as Orlando's bishop.

"He is one of the well-known religious leaders in Central Florida, and he is a voice open to dialogue with both Christians and Jews," Wenski said. "He is the closest ranking Muslim clergyman in the area, so that was a good and noble thing that he tried to do, but as it seems to have turned out, it's oftentimes difficult to communicate with people who have a narrow frame of reference, which that pastor seemingly has."

Musri said he offered to set up a meeting with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in New York to ask him to relocate the so-called "ground-zero mosque" to another site.

Jones, however, later said that Musri had promised the New York City mosque would be built somewhere else. He canceled, and then later just suspended, the Quran-burning until a new religious figure stepped in Friday and said Jones had canceled the event again.

By Friday, Musri had not heard back from the New York City mosque, and its leader said through the media that he had no plans to meet with Jones. Musri said Jones had jumped the gun because he wanted to use the incident to get more publicity.

"I was shocked," Musri said. "He is trying to now become the champion for moving the mosque, and he wants to stay in the spotlight, and he understands that if he keeps to his word, all these media trucks are going to leave his lot, and nobody will come back to him."

On Friday morning, Musri withdrew from the media spotlight to pray with thousands of area Muslims at the Central Florida Fairgrounds to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of Ramadan fasting.

In typical fashion, their imam asked them to be patient and not let Jones or any other anti-Islam preachers goad them into a fight.

"We should not be provoked," Musri said, "and we should be patient so we don't react with anger."

Víctor Manuel Ramos can be reached at vramos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6186.