Before this week the only people who listened to Pastor Terry Jones were a few dozen parishioners at his church in a sleepy suburb of Gainesville, Florida.
But today the eyes of the world are on him to see what he'll do with the pile of Korans neatly stacked in his office.
After the extraordinary intervention of Barack Obama and Interpol, fatal shootings and a string of violent demonstrations, Pastor Jones' planned bonfire could spread around the world.
President Obama yesterday issued a plea for calm amid the escalating unrest over the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church's plan to burn the Koran.
Pastor Jones has caused international outrage after his vow to torch the holy book today - the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terror atrocities.
Speaking from the White House, Mr Obama repeated his concerns that the stunt would provoke bloody reprisals.
He said: "In the age of the internet, it is something that can cause us profound damage around the world, so we've got to take it seriously.
"The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else's religion is contrary to what this nation stands for, contrary to what this nation was founded on.
"My hope is this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it."
He added: "I will do everything I can, as long as I am president of the United States, to remind the American people we are one nation under God. We may call that god different names but we are one nation."
It had seemed on Thursday that Pastor Jones had cancelled the Koran burning event in return for a promise from Muslim leaders that they would no longer build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York.
But developers denied that any deal had been made and Pastor Jones retaliated by saying his bonfire had merely been put on hold.
Thousands of Muslims across the globe reacted with fury yesterday during a string of demonstrations.
In the worst incident, three people were shot dead at a protest near a Nato base in north-east Afghanistan.
Witnesses said an angry mob in Badakhshan hurled rocks at the base run by German troops before starting to climb the walls.
Private security guards around the perimeter then opened fire.
On the streets of Kabul demonstrators burned a US flag and chanted "Death to Christians" after Friday prayers.
Many were incensed that the US had not banned the Koran bonfire.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: "We have heard that in the US a pastor has decided to insult Korans.
"Now, although we have heard that they are not doing this, we tell them they should not even think of it.
"By burning the Koran, they cannot harm it. The Koran is in the hearts and minds of one-and-a-half billion people. Insulting the Koran is an insult to nations." Furious anti-US rallies also took place in Pakistan, Indonesia, Palestine and India at a time when Muslims were meant to be having peaceful Eid celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan.
Demonstrators in the Pakistan city of Lahore burned an effigy of Pastor Jones.
And at least 200 protesters took to the streets in the central city of Multan.
Imam Mufti Hidayatullah Pasroori told the crowd that postponing the burning was not enough.
He said: "We will continue to raise our voice so that it never happens again."
Pakistani Christians also joined the widespread demonstrations against the controversial stunt.
A rally was also reported in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city.
The president of Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Islamic population, said that Pastor Jones' plan threatened world peace.
In a speech marking the end of Ramadan, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "I'm, of course, aware of the reported cancellation of the deplorable act by Terry Jones. However, none of us can be complacent until such a despicable idea is totally extinguished."
Muslims took to the streets in the country's capital, Jakarta, and some outside the US embassy waved banners saying "You burn the Koran, you burned in hell".
In Gaza, Palestine, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Mr Jones was a "crazy priest who reflects a crazy Western attitude toward Islam and the Muslim nation".
And outside a mosque in Iraqi capital Baghdad, a huge banner read: "Burning the Koran, shame on America".
Even residents in Gainesville were furious with the church, with many believing it has put their lives at risk.
Pastor Jones says he won't go through with his inflammatory plan if he can meet with the team behind the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.
The talks with Imam Feisal Abdul Raufwill in New York are due to take place today.
Last night, the pastor made no promises about the Koran burning and said: "Right now we have plans not to do it."
He added: "Right now we plan to meet the imam on Saturday - if we meet with him then of course we will not burn the Korans."
Asked whether he took responsibility for the anger his actions have provoked, Mr Jones said: "We have brought an awareness that radical Islam is much more dangerous, violent and radical than we had ever thought.
"They are doing things although we have done nothing.
"It is just an excuse for violence. We do not feel responsible - we did not pull the trigger. It reveals the true nature of Islam.
"People all the time burn Bibles and the flag - Americans do not go around killing people. That is not our nature."
The storm has been the biggest furore yet over the plans to build a 13-storey Islamic centre and mosque 600ft from the site of the Twin Towers where 3,000 people were killed by Muslim terrorists in 2001.
Pastor Jones' actions have left people wondering how a tiny church could seemingly hold the world to ransom.
When Barack Obama took the presidential oath, the world hoped it would heal the wounds of America's divided past.
But today, less than two years later, the far-right is gaining ground across the US.
This week's Koran-burning stand-off is just the symptom of a wider disease gnawing away at the world's greatest democracy.
The alarming trend is best shown by the soaring popularity of the Tea Party movement.
Named after the Boston Tea Party of 1773 when Americans dumped their British rulers' tea in the sea, it has become a rallying point for the right.
It provocatively chose the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech for a recent march in Washington at which black politicians claimed they were abused and spat on Their poster girl is the one woman said to have enough backing to stand against Obama for the Republicans next time around: Sarah Palin.
Yesterday, she said: "People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero."
Most of the current hysteria has been spawned by the proposed Ground Zero mosque. To those who oppose it, the Islamic cultural centre is a sick trophy to Osama bin Laden. For others, it is a symbol of multiculturalism and a legitimate place of worship.
Only one thing is for sure, there is no issue more divisive in America today.
Whoever wins, it will create a headache for Obama, which plays nicely into the hands of guntoting hockey mom Sarah Palin.
Source: www.mirror.co.uk
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