That particualr fellow was the "negotiator" for the Moslems so he must know.
Sounds like a lot of the difficulty was a "personal problem" with one or two cab drivers who just didn't want dogs in their cabs.
Frankly, I don't let dogs in my car either. Never did. On the other hand, I don't pick up people and their stuff "for hire".
Really?
Obviously you haven't hailed a cab in Minneapolis in the recent past.
Walking is becoming a preferred mode of transportation next to taking a cab.
Regardless of the distance...
I don't know enough about the Muslim's religion to know about the dog part...
They are against so much of what we all have in our everyday lifestyle, it didn't surprise me, actually.
Remember in that Abu Ghraib case, they used dogs ON LEASHES to scare the prisoners...I thought of that when I heard about this story...so I figured that maybe dogs are considered "bad" in their religion.
BUT, like you said....if you have a job like that, you have to please the customer..and in this case it isn't just the passengers, but the airport itself.
However from what I have read, moderate Muslims say it is not forbidden to touch a dog or have a dog, but they should wash any body part after touching a dog, and consider it unsanitary to have a dog in the house. It is more of a ritual of purification after being licked by a dog, being considered unclean but not prohibited.
Islamic websites claim there is no condemnation of dogs in the Quran, as from one site:
It is traditional among Muslims all over the world to regard the dog as a dirty animal that when touched would void your wudu (ablution) and give you nagasah (dirty impurity!
Sadly, this concept comes from fabricated hadith which claims that the prophet ordered the killing of dogs and gave numerous hadith that prohibit the keeping of dogs except for hunting and guarding, due to their dirty status!
However, by studying the Quran we find no such claims. Nowhere in the Quran are dogs prohibited. Consequently, we must dismiss all these hadith that fabricate lies against the Prophet.