Posted on 10/11/2006 7:37:12 AM PDT by Jean S
A minor issue at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) has potentially major implications for the future of Islam in the United States.
Starting about a decade ago, some Muslim taxi drivers serving the airport declared that they would not transport passengers visibly carrying alcohol, in transparent duty-free shopping bags, for example. This stance stemmed from their understanding of the Koran's ban on alcohol. A driver named Fuad Omar explained: "This is our religion. We could be punished in the afterlife if we agree to [transport alcohol]. This is a Koran issue. This came from heaven." Another driver, Muhamed Mursal, echoed his words: "It is forbidden in Islam to carry alcohol."
The issue emerged publicly in 2000. On one occasion, 16 drivers in a row refused a passenger with bottles of alcohol. This left the passenger - who had done nothing legally wrong - feeling like a criminal. For their part, the 16 cabbies lost income. As Josh L. Dickey of the Associated Press put it, when drivers at MSP refuse a fare for any reason, "they go to the back of the line. Waaaay back. Past the terminal, down a long service road, and into a sprawling parking lot jammed with cabs in Bloomington, where drivers sit idle for hours, waiting to be called again."
(Excerpt) Read more at danielpipes.org ...
In an article today, "Don't Bring That Booze into My Taxi," I take up the issue of hacks at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and their unwillingness to transport passengers who visibly carry alcohol. Here are some additional points of interest that could not fit the column.
According to one commentator on my website, Wiley Freeman, the two-light solution is already dead, due to taxi industry disapproval. He writes: "It appears the taxi companies feared that taxi customers would boycott the Muslim taxis, identifiable by their lights. They also feared that customers would use other means of transportation."
Neither I nor anyone I queried has ever heard of cabbies in a Muslim-majority city raising an objection to carrying a passenger with liquor. Even Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations acknowledged that the cab drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International are the first he's heard objecting to carrying alcohol.
There are reasons to doubt that the drivers' understanding of the Koranic prohibition on alcohol makes sense. The ban on alcohol concerns its consumption, not its transportation. Mohammad Al-Hanooti, a specialist on Islamic law, states that "some Islamic scholars disagree altogether with the Minneapolis Muslim cabbies' interpretation of Islamic law." Al-Hanooti himself explicitly finds that "it is lawful for a Muslim driver to carry a passenger who has alcohol." He dismissed the cabbies' concerns: "They think it is unlawful because they carry this feeling from home, because they come from Muslim countries."
Ironically, Muslim drivers do not object to drunken passengers, just those who are evidently carrying alcohol in bottles.
I raised the prospect of Muslim drivers objecting to – and refusing to transport "women with exposed arms or hair, homosexuals, and unmarried couples." I could have mentioned transgendered individuals, but did not. Today, I learn that this issue has already arisen, not at MSP but in the city of Minneapolis, according to a news report from the local Fox affiliate. (For the article, click here; for the video, here.)
In her bright pink hat, Paula Hare has found herself waiting on her stoop a lot lately, for taxi cabs that never come. Not to avoid confusion, Paula even tells the taxi dispatcher she's transgendered. But on three occasions when the taxi actually showed up, she says Muslim drivers have refused to give her a lift. "This is more than just religion, it's flat out discrimination," Hare said. "And we've got laws against that in this state." The city of Minneapolis says she's right. Of the nearly 2,000 taxis in the Twin Cities metro, estimates are as many as half the drivers are recent immigrants – many Muslim.
The same item reports from MSP: "When FOX 9 stopped by the airport taxi lot to talk about the controversy, we got a near riot. No one said they would give us a ride with a bottle of wine, and they told us to go somewhere else."
Back in 2000, the Council on American-Islamic Relations jumped in to the fray with its usual helpfulness. "There is a large group of Muslims out here," remarked Damon Drake, CAIR's local outreach director. "Now that the Muslims are here, they need to be accommodated." Building on this aggressive attitude, Drake suggested that passengers with alcohol be segregated from everyone else and be handled by "special call" drivers willing to transport alcohol who could jump the line to take them. In proposing this, CAIR not only sought state endorsement for the Muslim prohibition on alcohol but tried to shift the burden of being anomalous and exceptional – not the Muslim driver shunning liquor but the alcohol-consuming passenger.
Passengers reacted with displeasure to the Muslim aggressiveness: "They're really kind of imparting their religious views on the public," said Katie Patterson of McKinley, Texas, who suggested that the cabbies should perhaps "look for other work."
If anything, airline personnel seem to be even less pleased: Eva Buzek, a flight attendant, returned to Minneapolis from a trip to France and encountered five straight taxi drivers who refused to take her home because she was had two bottles of wine in her suitcase. Buzek, an immigrant from Poland, considered this un-American. "I came to this country and I didn't expect anybody to adjust to my needs. I don't want to impose my beliefs on anyone else. That's why I'm in this country, because of the freedom. What's going to be next? ... Do I have to cover my head?"
Non-Muslim taxi drivers at MSP would seem to dislike this situation the most. "To work out here is the choice of the driver," says one of them, Tim Swiler. "We're talking about the choice to run a business. If you choose not to transport alcohol, that's your choice. It's the same choice if you decide not to take someone with a cane or a limp, a toupee or a bad hat. Go to the back of the line."
(October 10, 2006)
Forget about sending them to the back of the line - send them back where they came from. If they're from here tell them to get another job.
The answer is simple, revoke their carriage license. If they want to be a mullah, let them open a mosque, if they want to be a cab driver follow the city rules.
Once in a north African country a local colleague told me the ban on alcohol was in fact just an interpretation, the Koran itself being somewhat vague as such texts often are.
GOOD. I hope the SATANIC cult of Islam Muslims ALL tag themselves for what they are. We NEED to see these clowns in society.
So, for the camel humping taxi drivers.....DO NOT GET IN THEIR cars. DO NOT support ANY business Muslims attempt to provide. Their American dream needs to be axed until they become AMERICANS.
Some would call it profiling, but if you hail a cab and it's driven by a cabbie that looks middle eastern, just pass them by. When it starts hurting their wallet, they will be forced to submit to the evil infidels or risk going broke. A concerted effort will stem these islamofascists.
That's it exactly.
I can understand their restrictions, from a religous point of view I may even attempt to honor their request.
However, they have taken a job that may put them at odds with their religion. As a christian it would be indecent for me to work for a strip club. It would not be indecent of me to refuse the owner's business however.
For those who would say otherwise, remember we are supposed to witness. Other than a business setting we may not be able to reach these people.
The exact wording is to not let the first drop of alcohol pass your lips.
I've seen muslims spill the firs few drops of their drink out so that it does not pass their lips and drink the rest.
This is similar to the story of the Pharmacist who refused to provide birth control, as she was Catholic. Or the waiter who refused to serve alcohol in the resturant because he was Baptist.
If you accept money to provide a service; you are selling your service - not your values. If you feel uncomfortable doing this, then perhaps a different field is in order. If you work as a waiter, but refuse to work weekends; you either work at a Chic-a-filet or find a resturant that will accomodat your needs. To demand that others change to accomodate YOUR religion is out of line; especially in a service industry. That's my opinion.
I'm on the cabbies side.
What if I were a doctor and based on my religious preferences I don't want to be in the operating room during an abortion?
"What's going to be next?Do i have to cover my head?"Not yet!
I'm glad you brought up the satanic cult thing.
Perhaps Christian & Jewish cab drivers can now start refusing muslim fares based on the aversion to being in the company of the followers of satan. Seems fair to me!
What goes around, comes around.
I'm glad you brought up the satanic cult thing.
Perhaps Christian & Jewish cab drivers can now start refusing muslim fares based on the aversion to being in the company of the followers of satan. Seems fair to me!
What goes around, comes around.
__________________________________________________
Ohhh, a very good addition. Excellent
I'm wondering if it would be considered ok, if a cab driver refused to drop an obviously pregnant woman off at an abortion clinic?
Lebanese Christians could be taxi drivers.
Hey look Ahmed, the Pork Rinds just don't go down as easy without a beer chaser.
Hey look Ahmed, the Pork Rinds just don't go down as easy without a beer chaser.
Let the market decide. If people don't like what the Muslim cab drivers are doing, don't give them your business. I don't think the government should be dictating business policy.
Then ask them if they allow alcohol in their cabs. If they say no, tell them to take a hike. Eventually they will have to submit or go out of business
So a pizza delivery guy can not refuse delivery to a dangerous area because he will be DEAD, but, a muslim cab driver can refuse service to someone carrying alcohol.
How have we gotten to this strange time in our history?
No rides in a taxi driven by a mooselimb then. Walk if necessary!
"Perhaps Christian and Jewish cab drivers can now start refusing Muslims fares."But..but.....that would be discriminatory:)
I like to pour mine on the corner for my peeps taht can't be here with me.
I haven't seen this question answered anywhere:
Are these driver-owned cars or are the taxis owned by a business and the drivers just check out the cars each day?
-PJ
Easier said than done if you live in Minneapolis-St Paul.
Well over half of the cab drivers are Somali, a smaller group are Nigerians and the smallest group are white guys.
More often than not, my cab driver was a Somali. If I wanted to get home, I took the ride.
"boycott the Muslim taxis"
damned good idea.
what's to stop the sensible rider from saying "oh, sorry, I've got wine in my bags. I'll have to take another taxi".
Since PC won't allow us to kick the throat-slitters out, we have to fight back in this way.
I think everyone should carry bottles. Let's keep sending these bastards to the back of the line and letting the American drivers get their fares.
I wonder if getting in their cab after a night of drinking and throwing up on their backseat counts.
"We could be punished in the afterlife if we agree to [transport alcohol]."
what a warped set of values that considers the carrying of alcohol worse than slowly slicing the head off a person while singing religious ditties!
"It is forbidden in Islam to carry alcohol."
It is forbidden in my religion to lock kids in a school and torture and murder them.
"How have we gotten to this strange time in our history"?
It's called the "slippery slope" or the boiling frog analogy.
You are so right.
How can someone with a straight face, argue that this is OK?
Perhaps neighborhoods should be allowed to put up "special colored lights" to signal their views that Muslims shouldn't be free to live in that section of town.
Perhaps business should be allowed to put up "special colored lights" to signal that "No Muslims Need Apply.
Solution: more non-Muslim cab drivers who will drive those fares,rule that a driver who refuses a fare is free to do so, but must go to the end of the line when they make the choice to skip a fare. Public is under no obligation to subsidize their religious scruples, but should allow them to make the choice (and pay the price in lost income and fare pickup opportunity).
How many times are we going to post this article?
Well I, for one, hadn't seen this article and I'm glad it was re-posted.
"I think everyone should carry bottles. Let's keep sending these bastards to the back of the line and letting the American drivers get their fares."
Excellent idea.
Not in Minneapolis..........you have to be Somali to drive a cab at the MPS airport.
Here's my take on it:
Have a taxi supervisor (or a cop) at the pickup point at each terminal. If a cab driver refuses to take a fare for a reason not allowed by law, the supervisor a) sends the driver all the way to the end of the line, and b) notifies the hackney license agency of the violation. The license agency then follows the law regarding suspension and revocation of the driver's hackney license.
There's laws that regulate this stuff, folks. All we need to do is use them.
The difference is between what is legal, and what is ethical.
Ethics vary from person to person, religon to religon and culture to culture. For example, in some cultures it is permissible to treat women as chattle, and discard them at will. Visitors are given free sexual access to the host's wife for the night. Children can be bought or sold. Some religons promote alcohol while others prohibit it.
As long as RU-386 is legal; I see no reason why a doctor or pharmicist can refuse to serve a customer who requests it, and keep their job. Now you and I may find abortion to be the same as murder (and I think we do); however we are a country of laws. We are free to change the laws, but we must operate within the laws. If we allow everyone to arbitrarily super-impose their ethics over our laws - we will have chaos.
This means that the cabbie who works for a cab company has a choice, take the fare and keep the job; or skip the fare and get fired. Engineers can design bombs for the military and keep their jobs, or refuse and get fired. Pharmacyists can dispense condoms, birth control pills and RU-386; or they can work somewhere else.
It's pretty simple, really. We are a country of laws.
After all, there's no reason the already beleaguered airline passenger has to suffer because some stupid Muslims insist on pushing their religious bigotry in people's faces, particularly when it results from a misreading of Islamic tenets.
is this the 10th article with the same headline in 3 weeks?
That's right. The intention was to prohibit strong drink.
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