A newly elected New York judge's choice to take her oath of office on the Koran instead of the Bible has triggered a social media firestorm.
The swearing-in last Thursday of Carolyn Walker-Diallo, elected last month in Brooklyn's 7th Municipal District,
was posted on Facebook, and some of the nastier online rebukes have the judge's supporters worried about her safety, the
New York Daily News reports.
"If you can't swear on the Bible you should not be in office," one commenter scolds.
But another takes the judge's side, writing: "As a Jew, I would swear in on one of my holy books … and none of you would care. This woman is an American concerned with the justice system. If she wants to swear in on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy she should be able to."
The backlash comes in the wake of GOP front-runner Donald Trump's proposal to indefinitely
ban all Muslims from entering the country — a proposal that has drawn both
condemnation and
support.
On her campaign page, Walker-Diallo makes reference to her faith.
But she is neither the first Muslim judge to serve in the state — that was Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who in 2013 became the first black woman and first Muslim to sit on the Court of Appeals, the state's highest judicial body, the Daily News reports.
Nor is she the first officeholder to be sworn in on the Koran:
In 2006, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison did so.
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