News-Record.com

I just got off the phone with M. Reza Salami, the N.C.A&T professor who was ticketed recently for driving with open alcohol containers in his car.

We are running an op-ed in Wednesday's News & Record in which Salami shares his side of the story which only began with his ticketing by a Guilford County sheriff's deputy at a sobriety checkpoint on Nov. 24.

Salami subsequently complained that the deputy's patrol car contained a sticker on the divider between the front and the back seat that proclaimed: "Jesus is your Savior."

Professor Salami noted during a conversation that he really likes Christmas, and that his Greensboro house is decorated for the season, as usual.

You see, Salami is himself Christian -- a Catholic, to be exact.

"I am a practicing Christian," said Salami, an Iranian American. He also said his wife and son are Catholic.

"I believe Jesus came to save me," he said.

So, why did he lodge a complaint about the sticker to Americans United for Separation of Church and State?

"Because I believe from my heart in the Constitution of the United States," he said.

He contends he never told Sheriff BJ Barnes that he was offended by the sticker. But he did consider it inappropriate

"The public car should belong to the public. What if they put up 'Satan is Lord'? Would that be OK?"

He added: "We don't want to be someplace like Saudi, Arabia. Do we want that here?"
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