[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Judges to consider Quran use for oaths
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Islamic center's offer to donate books was denied in Greensboro[/font]
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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GREENSBORO[/font]
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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.[/font]
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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 holy book.[/font]
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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.[/font]
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"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.[/font]
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That move came after the office got queries on the issue last week.[/font]
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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.[/font]
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"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.[/font]
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That decision disappointed Syidah Mateen, who tried to donate the copies of the Quran.[/font]
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"This is a diverse world, and everybody does not worship or believe the same," she said.[/font]
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Ellis said he is not aware of anyone ever being allowed to swear on anything other than the Bible in a North Carolina courtroom. [/font]
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Anyone who objects to that may take an oath, which means that they raise their hand and affirm to tell the truth.[/font]