Posted on 10/10/2006 1:52:19 PM PDT by bboop
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.
I call it discrimination and I call it sharia'a law say IT STOPS NOW.
Contact the Minneapolis airport: publicaffairs@mspmac.org
Where it will end:
Saudi Arabia - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bibles are illegal. Churches are illegal.
Yemen - Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims and forbids conversions. The Government does not allow the building of new non-Muslim places of worship.
Kuwait - Registration and licensing of religious groups. Members of religions not sanctioned in the Koran may not build places of worship. Prohibits organized religious education for religions other than Islam.
Egypt - Islam is the official state religion and primary source of legislation. Accordingly, religious practices that conflict with Islamic law are prohibited. Muslims may face legal problems if they convert to another faith. Requires non-Muslims to obtain what is now a presidential decree to build a place of worship.
Algeria - The law prohibits public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam. Non-Islamic proselytizing is illegal, and the Government restricts the importation of non-Islamic literature for distribution.
Jordan - Has the death penalty for any Muslim selling land to a Jew.
Sudan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death.
Pakistan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims. Christians regularly put in prison for charges of blasphemy. Islam is the state religion, and in a court of law the testimony of a Christian carries less weight than that of a Muslim. Section 295(c) of the Penal Code calls for a death sentence for anyone who defiles the name of the Prophet Muhammad and requires the testimony of four Muslims for a conviction. This fosters an environment in which Muslims can feel free to use intimidation and violence against religious minorities for personal gain.
Qatar - Islamic instruction is compulsory in public schools. The government regulates the publication, importation, and distribution of non-Islamic religious literature. The government continues to prohibit proselytizing of Muslims by non-Muslims.
Malaysia - Under Malaysian law, any convert to Christianity must apply to a shariah (Muslim law) court to legally renounce Islam. Many Christians prefer to remain silent converts rather than take their battle to the shariah courts, where apostasy or conversion out of Islam is punishable by whipping, fines, imprisonment and--in the most extreme application--death.
The Maldives - In the island paradise visited by tens of thousands of tourists each year, Christianity is simply not tolerated. While local Christians – said to number around 300 out of a total population of 300,000 – do get together to worship, they do so at the risk of imprisonment or worse if discovered by the Muslim authorities. Bibles are banned, and tourists can be arrested for trying to bring them into the country.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/
Respectfully, get a different job. It seems that your religion relies heavily on other people making concessions for you to get to 'heaven'. Have the balls to find a job that does not insult your religious sensibilities. Take control of your own eternal destiny.
Coming to Christ would be a good start.
A_R
I agree, and that's why I think the "it's their cab, they should have the right to refuse whoever they want" argument is false in this instance. It looks to them not as sensitivity but as fear, of surrendering to dhimmitude.
Maybe they could have a blood red light on top of their cabs that signal they only take muslim murderers.
I kind of like this light idea, it tells me which cab I Will Not ride in! Can we get these lights at gas stations and motels as well?
Well if Muslims are a majority of drivers and they turn down 3 people a day on average then send their Muslim asses back to the back of the line as the line will be continually moving and should move pretty fast so they will quickly get back to the front of the line to judge the next person.
Hit them in the pocket book. Make them sign a contract that says they will carry people no matter if they are carrying alcohol. If they can buy it the airport it has to be allowed to be transported.
If the Muslims have a problem with it, tell them to go find another beat to roam looking for $50-$100 fairs.
Bastads!
But maybe their religion will require them to wear suicide bomb belts. That's jsut about a quote from the Koran. Then what? And to set them off on the Jews, if they dare to get in. Or if someone dares to carry porkchops in their bag. Or maybe they ate pork last night.
The contact info is at the bottom of the article. Be sure to give those idiots an earful.
The article said -- "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."
Well, it's time for someone with legal standing, in this situation to file a lawsuit forcing the government to back off that position and maintain a totally neutral position, like many *maintain* for Christianity (and likewise file lawsuits...).
Regards,
Star Traveler
Oh please, the first place Saudi Businessmen head to once they set foot in this country is the local strip club.
IT STOPS NOW
You have hit the nail on the head. Simply put, this is nothing more than a POWER PLAY. Time and time again, appeasers will tell us this. "Oh,look, just this little once. Just go along with what they want. It does not mean very much".
With Islam it does not stop there. Just like with Herr Hitler. "Just give him the Sudaten. Never mind Austria- well they are part German anyway". Finally, Poland.
No weak kneed appeaser will confront the problem. As we speak, some district in California, has defeated a protest in a supreme court. The protest was to prevent students being indoctrinated in the religion of Islam for three weeks.
Some stand must be taken.
They are free to return to the Third-World Sh!tholes from whence they came.
Next time I ride in a Muslim cab, I'm going to leave a ham sandwich on the seat.
Hey Achmed, you just spent your own money to put ethanol into your own fuel tank. Does't that violate your stupid religion?
Dont ride in their stinking Muslim taxi. Wait for an American or take the bus, Rent a car. let them sit in the taxi stand all day.
What if we just leave a slice of raw bacon under the driver's seat before exiting the vehicle?
Thw ay most taxi stands work is the first one in line gets the fare.
Place a policeman at the line. If a Muslim refuses a fare send his ass back to the bakc of the line, and wait until another cab comes who will take it.
If they are all Muslim and refuse to take fares ban them from the stand
This is America its time Americans grew some balls in their dealings with these buttholes.
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