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judje jus says no too korran
The state's judges will be asked this week to decide whether witnesses in North Carolina courtrooms can be sworn in on a Quran rather than a Bible. The move comes after Guilford County judges rejected an offer last week by the Greensboro Islamic center to donate copies of the Quran, the Muslim The Administrative Office of the Courts will ask the opinion of the state's judges when they meet this week at judicial conferences in Asheville and Wrightsville Beach, said Dick Ellis, a spokesman for the office. "We'll take the input of the judges and bring it together and try to come up with an answer that pleases most people and follows the law," he said. That move came after the office got queries on the issue last week. In a preliminary opinion issued last week, a lawyer for the Administrative Office of the Courts said that state law allows people to be sworn in using a Quran rather than a Bible, Ellis said. But Guilford County judges told officials with the Islamic center Friday that they would not allow that in their courtrooms. "An oath on the Quran is not a lawful oath under our law," W. Douglas Albright, Guilford's Senior Resident Superior Court judge, said earlier in the week. That decision disappointed Syidah Mateen, who tried to donate the copies of the Quran. "This is a diverse world, and everybody does not worship or believe the same," she said. Ellis said he is not aware of anyone ever being allowed to swear on anything other than the Bible in a North Carolina courtroom. Anyone who objects to that may take an oath, which means that they raise their hand and affirm to tell the truth. Posted by: muck4doo 2005-06-21 |
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