RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, US, July 27, 2005: The American Civil Liberties Union said witnesses in North Carolina courtrooms should be allowed to swear to tell the truth on scriptures other than the Bible. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to permit oaths to be taken on the holy books of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and other non-Christian faiths. Judges in Guilford County ruled recently that Muslims cannot legally take an oath on the Quran. State law allows witnesses to take their oath either by laying a hand over “Holy Scripture,” by saying “so help me God” without the use of a religious book or by using no religious symbols. The head of the North Carolina ACLU said, “We hope that the court will issue a ruling that the phrase ‘holy scripture’ includes the Quran, Old Testament, and Bhagavad-Gita in addition to the Christian Bible.”
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