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Questions about Rev. Jones Surface in Germany

Jones is steadfast on his plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan who warned that doing so would endanger American troops overseas. AP Photo/John Raoux

While the Rev. Terry Jones continues to threaten to burn 200 copies of the Quran (Koran) on Sept. 11, his fundamentalist behavior is old news to people who knew the pastor when he lived in Germany.

His daughter, Emma Jones, who still resides there told German news website Spiegel Online in an interview, "He demanded that people completely obey him and his second wife, Sylvia. Both are extremely obsessed with power."

According to former followers and his daughter, Terry Jones' past in Europe reveals a history of delusions of grandeur as the minister founded and led an evangelical church in Cologne called the Christian Community of Cologne until 2009, reports Spiegel Online. His daughter believes her father to be a megalomaniac who wanted to control everything.

Jones' radicalism bothered the 800 to 1,000 person congregation so much that they kicked him out, accusing him of spiritual abuse.

Spiegel Online spoke to former members, who said a "climate of fear and control" was normal at the church.

Members claimed Jones committed heinous acts -- causing holes in the church's finances, urging church members to beat their children with a rod and teaching "a distinctive demonology" and conducted brainwashing. Many are in therapy, Andrew Schafer, a Protestant Church official responsible for monitoring sects in the region, told Der Spiegel.

After being confronted with accusations, Jones moved back to the United States, with a few of his followers going with him to Gainesville, Fla.

Jones' anti-Islamic behavior is fairly new, surfacing in 2008, his daughter said. The pastor has a reputation for manipulating social issues for attention.

"Terry Jones has a talent for finding topical social issues and seizing on them for his own cause," said Schafer.

Both Schafer and Jones' daughter believe that the reverend is delusional. Emma Jones, who condemns her father's threats to burn the Quran, thinks he is capable of doing so, and says her father needs help. Her e-mail pleas for him to stop have gone unanswered.

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