Swear to tell the truth

... but on the Koran?!

I heard this on the radio this morning:

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in July 2005 in Superior Court in Wake County on behalf of the organization's statewide membership of approximately 8,000 individuals of many different faiths, including Islam and Judaism. In November 2005, the ACLU added another plaintiff to the case, Syidah Mateen, a Muslim woman who was denied the option of using the Quran when she was being sworn in as a witness in a court proceeding in Guilford County. She was told that the only holy text used in the courtroom is the King James Version of the Bible.

I cannot understand why this is a problem. Why should one swear to tell the "truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" on a book which permits - nay, encourages! - its followers to lie?

At the moment, I can think of only one instance in the Bible where a lie is affirmed by God:

15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, "When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?"

19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them."

20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.

Everywhere else, the truth is held in high regard, and God's people are called to follow the Ninth Commandment diligently; after all, Jesus calls Himself the Truth, God is the God of Truth (see also here and here), and believers are called to

• buy truth
• rejoice in truth
• speak the truth
• meditate on the truth
• give truthful testimony
• sanctify themselves in truth
• obey the truth

... just to give a few examples.

However, the Koran and Islamic traditions allow and encourage deceit - and not to save lives, but to delude "infidels."

God - the real God, the Holy and Perfect God of creation - calls His children to live in peace and obey the laws of their land. His Word, the Bible, calls itself the Truth over and over again. Although swearing (or affirming) on the Bible will not necessarily make a liar tell the truth, there is an warning element of the righteous judgment awaiting you if you swear to tell the truth on the Book of Truth - and then lie.

I don't see the parallel in the Koran.