Muslim Taxi Drivers At Minneapolis International Airport
Subjecting Public Fares To Islamic Sharia Law
About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
are Somalis, many of them Muslim.
Oct 16- 2006 NEWS UPDATE - Since the airport began making plans for the two-light
solution, "we've heard from Australia and England. It's really touched a nerve among
a lot of people. The backlash, frankly, has been overwhelming. People are overwhelmingly
against any kind of cultural accommodation.
Mahmoud Ayoub, an Islamic scholar at Temple University, stressed that Islam bans drinking
alcohol, not carrying it. "I know many Muslims who own gas stations [where beer is
sold] and sell ham sandwiches. They justify it and I think rightly so, [saying] that they
have to make a living."
No Islamic Law in Minnesota, for Now by Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com
October 16, 2006 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4058
A week ago, it appeared likely that Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport would win special dispensation to avoid transporting
alcohol-carrying passengers. The Metropolitan Airports Commission had proposed to give
those Shar'i-minded drivers an off-colored light atop their cabs, allowing them to remain
in queue while customers with bottles found other cabs.
I opposed this "two-light solution," arguing in "Don't Bring That Booze
into My Taxi" that it intrudes Islamic law into a mundane transaction of American
commercial life. I urged readers who share my views to write the commission to make known
their views.
On October 10, a few hours after my article first appeared, the commission met and
reversed itself on the two-light solution. A press release issued later that day,
"Proposed Taxi Test Program Canceled at Minneapolis-St. Paul International; Other
Options Will be Considered To Improve Taxi Service," explained that public response
to the proposed program "has been overwhelmingly against creation of a two-tiered
taxi service system."
MAC executive director Jeff Hamiel noted that, based on public response to the proposed
test program the test program (which never went into effect and will not be
implemented)," it is clear that its implementation could have unintended and
significant negative impacts on the taxi industry as a whole." Or, in the words of
MAC's press release, "Some taxi service providers have expressed fears that people
opposed to the program will choose other ground transportation options rather than take
any taxi from the airport."
Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan further elaborated: Since the airport began making plans
for the two-light solution, "we've heard from Australia and England. It's really
touched a nerve among a lot of people. The backlash, frankly, has been overwhelming.
People are overwhelmingly against any kind of cultural accommodation." That backlash,
Hogan said, included 400 e-mails and phone calls.
I thank my readers, including those from Australia and England, who turned out in force
and were apparently decisive in stopping this small but worrisome application of Islamic
law.
Hassan Mohamud, vice president of Minnesota MAS, naturally expressed his disappointment in
the decision. "More than half the taxi drivers are Muslim and ignoring the
sensibilities of that community at the airport I think is not fair." But other
Muslims publicly dismissed the drivers' fastidiousness. Mahmoud Ayoub, an Islamic scholar
at Temple University, stressed that Islam bans drinking alcohol, not carrying it. "I
know many Muslims who own gas stations [where beer is sold] and sell ham sandwiches. They
justify it and I think rightly so, [saying] that they have to make a living."
The Free Muslims Coalition announced it is "disgusted" by the Muslim drivers'
behavior, on two grounds: First, "Most Muslims don't agree that cab drivers are
prohibited from transporting alcohol. Islam merely prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol
and those drivers are seeking to impose their religious values on others." Second,
"When the cab drivers chose to drive a cab they entered into an agreement to perform
a public service that is essential to the economy of any city. They have no right to
refuse a fare because the passenger is holding a bottle of wine or other spirits."
Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslims Coalition, added: "These taxi cab drivers
basically think they're living in their own countries where it's OK to impose your
religious beliefs upon others."
The MAC press release also contains information on another interesting point. The number
of incidents has dropped drastically:
At the time discussion of the issue with the taxi industry began in May, cab drivers were
refusing to transport customers with alcohol from Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport 77 times per month, on average. However, recent changes in federal regulations now
prohibit air travelers from taking most liquids – including alcoholic beverages
– in quantities larger than three ounces through security checkpoints. Since the
federal liquids prohibition went into effect in August, far fewer people are noticeably
carrying alcohol through airports or subsequently being refused service by taxi drivers.
In a private conversation, Patrick Hogan specified that since the August 10 thwarted
terrorist plot in London, there have only been about four incidents per month. Ironically,
then, British Islamists plotting a terrorist operation in London effectively solved the
problem for U.S. Muslims not wanting to transport alcohol in Minnesota.
For now, taxi drivers who refuse fares so as to avoid transporting alcohol will continue,
as has been the case, to forfeit their place in the airport taxi queue and must return to
the back of the line, in keeping with a MAC ordinance. But the Free Muslims Coalition
correctly argues that this does not suffice. Cab drivers who discriminate against
passengers with bottles of alcohol, it holds, "should be banned altogether from
picking up passengers at the airport" and their hack permits should be cancelled.
Exactly. Islamists need to understand that the Constitution rules in the United States,
not Shari'a, and Americans will vigorously ensure that it continues to do so.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INITIAL NEWS STORY - 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."
To avoid this predicament, Muslim taxi drivers asked the Metropolitan Airports
Commission for permission to
refuse passengers carrying liquor - or even suspected of carrying liquor - without being
banished to the end of the line. MAC rejected this appeal, worried that drivers might
offer religion as an excuse to refuse short-distance passengers.
The number of Muslim drivers has by now increased, to the point that they reportedly make
up three-quarters of MSP's 900 cabdrivers. By September 2006, Muslims turned down an
estimated three fares a day based on their religious objection to alcohol, an airport
spokesman, Patrick Hogan, told the Associated Press, adding that this issue has
"slowly grown over the years to the point that it's become a significant customer
service issue."
"Travelers often feel surprised and insulted," Mr. Hogan told USA Today.
With this in mind, MAC proposed a pragmatic solution: drivers unwilling to carry alcohol
could get a special color light on their car roofs, signaling their views on alcohol to
taxi starters and customers alike. From the airport's point of view, this scheme offers a
sensible and efficient mechanism to resolve a minor irritant, leaving no passenger
insulted and no driver losing business. "Airport authorities are not in the business
of interpreting sacred texts or dictating anyone's religious choices," Hogan points
out. "Our goal is simply to ensure travelers at the airport are well served."
Awaiting approval only from the airport's taxi advisory committee, the two-light proposal
will likely be in operation by the end of 2006.
But on a societal level, the proposed solution has massive and worrisome implications.
Namely, the two-light plan intrudes the Shari‘a, or Islamic law, with state sanction,
into a mundane commercial transaction in Minnesota. A government authority thus sanctions
a signal as to who does or does not follow Islamic law.
What of taxi drivers beyond those at MSP? Other Muslims in Minneapolis-St. Paul and across
the country could well demand the same privilege. Bus conductors might follow suit. The
whole transport system could be divided between those Islamically observant and those not
so.
Why stop with alcohol? Muslim taxi drivers in several countries already balk at allowing
seeing-eye dogs in their cars. Future demands could include not transporting women with
exposed arms or hair, homosexuals, and unmarried couples. For that matter, they could ban
men wearing kippas, as well as Hindus, atheists, bartenders, croupiers, astrologers,
bankers, and quarterbacks.
MAC has consulted on the taxi issue with the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American
Society, an organization the Chicago Tribune has established is devoted to turning the
United States into a country run be Islamic law. The wife of a former head of the
organization, for example, has explained that its goal is "to educate everyone about
Islam and to follow the teachings of Islam with the hope of establishing an Islamic
state."
It is precisely the innocuous nature of the two-light taxi solution that makes it so
insidious - and why the Metropolitan Airports Commission should reconsider its
wrong-headed decision. Readers who wish to make their views known to the MAC can write it
at publicaffairs@mspmac.org Daniel Pipes October 10, 2006 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4046
==================================================
“We hope this process becomes seamless
for our customers and painless for drivers who don’t want to carry alcohol,”
said Steve Wareham, airport director.
Officials at the airport said the problem started years ago with few drivers, but grew
rapidly over the years as the number of Muslim taxi drivers increased in the last seven
years. In addition to alcohol, Wareham, the airport director, says that there have been a
few complaints of ride refusals for customers with dogs or gay customers.
Muslim American Society to continue working on the plan.
Hassan Mohamud, an imam and vice president of the Muslim American Society said The Qur'an,
Islam's holy book, strictly forbids buying, selling, drinking or carrying alcohol.
The muslim drivers object only to transporting openly displayed alcohol, said Ali Culed, a
Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight years. "It is a religious
issue," Culed said. "I cannot force anybody to change their belief, but not in
my cab. I don't want the guilt. I just want to be an innocent person."
Eva Buzek, a flight attendant, said she was refused service after she told a driver to be
careful with her suitcase because it had wine in it. Other drivers in the taxi line passed
the word, she said, and four more refused her service. A dispatcher finally steered her to
a driver who would take the fare.
Buzek, who grew up in Poland, said her treatment goes against American values. "I
came to this country and I didn't expect anybody to adjust to my needs," she said.
"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?"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/013158.php
------------------------
Some Infidels should sue the cab companies involved for religious discrimination.
Posted by: remote_control at September 18, 2006
------------------------
Imagine the outrage, if a Christian or Jewish driver refused to drive a pregnant woman to
an abortion clinic. Could a Somali get away with it? Why, of course. One wonders: How many
of these gentle Islamic brothers were present during the "Blackhawk Down"
episode, back in Mogadishu?
Posted by: RedStateInfidel at September 18, 2006
----------------------
What happens if I'm carrying a side of bacon?
Posted by: Know Your Enemy at September 18, 2006
------------------------------
What manner of insanity is this? Next they will have another color on their cabs for no
jews, and nother for no hindus, or no christians, or no ladies not wearing hijab, or no
shaven men wearing shorts and tanktops. this is tottaly nsane. Tese people are in the usa
and they must respect our cuilture or else go back to smellia.
Posted by: desidude at September 18, 2006 11:07 AM
-----------------------------------
LOVE the idea of letting the public know who's muslim or not.
I will be avoiding the muslim cabdrivers, whether or not I'm carrying alcohol or pork.
If word gets out, maybe enough people will simply avoid the muslim cabdrivers altogether.
Let's see how long not making money changes the somalis view of alcohol.
Money talks, bull**** walks.
Posted by: 3812Michelle at September 18, 2006
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/709262.html
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/013158.php
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=taxi91906.htm
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