Controversy over Required Reading on Islam at University of North Carolina

August 20, 2002

Source: The New York Times

On August 20, 2002, The New York Times reported that the Univerisity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's "3,500 freshmen gathered today to discuss their summer reading assignment, which this year was a book about the Koran... The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., upholding a district court finding from last week, ruled against... a conservative Christian group that had sued to stop them... In the courtroom, lawyers for the university had spent the weekend arguing that the discussions were not, as the Christian group charged, 'forced Islamic indoctrination.' While the court case was pending, a legislative committee in Raleigh was considering a bill, already passed by the General Assembly, that would deny financing to the university if it did not give equal time in the classroom to 'all known religions.'"