Alcohol bothers Muslim cabbies
By Khalid Hassan WASHINGTON: Somalian Muslim taxi drivers at Minneapolis airport are continuing to refuse to carry passengers with alcoholic beverages in their baggage on the ground that “this is America and we have freedom of religion.”
According to a CNN report, cab driver Abdulkaddir Adan said, “The Metropolitan Airport Commission is discriminating against us Muslim drivers,” he said. “The one who drinks, the one who transports, and the one who makes a business of it, they have the same category.”
In the past five years, 5,400 would-be taxi passengers at the airport were refused service for this reason, says the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC). Last year in May, passenger Bob Dildine says he waited for 20 minutes, and five cab drivers would not give him and his daughter a ride. He was carrying wine he bought on vacation. “We were a lawful customer, and we were denied service. That’s not our way of doing things.”
MAC officials told CNN they do not know of any airport other than theirs where this has become an issue. They explain that the area has a growing population of immigrant Somalians, many of whom have sought jobs as taxi drivers. Last year, MAC consulted local Muslim leaders, who issued a fatwa in support of the drivers, saying “transportation of alcohol for Muslims is against the Islamic faith, and therefore forbidden.”
Airport officials sought a compromise last September, and suggested that distinctive lights could be put on the roofs of cabs operated by drivers, who will not transport alcohol.
“But the feedback we got, not only locally but really from around the country and around the world, was almost entirely negative,” said airport spokesman Pat Hogan. “People saw that as condoning discrimination against people who had alcohol.” As of now, MAC says, any cab driver who refuses a passenger carrying alcohol must go to the back of the line. Such a driver often has to wait up to three hours for the next passenger. Because MAC officials have received thousands of complaints, they’re considering stiffer penalties: a 30-day suspension for a first refusal, a two-year suspension for a second. “We’re now at a point where the drivers may have to make a choice,” according to a MAC official.
However, Adan is quite clear in his mind as to what he would do. “I would leave my job, instead of doing something that’s not allowed in my religion,” he said. He was not willing to accept the idea that in America a cab driver should allow something his religion forbids.
And here it is, the 'THIS IS AMERICA, WE ARE FREE TO PRACTICE OUR RELIGION AS WE SEE FIT AND IF YOU DON'T LET US, WELL YOU ARE DISCRIMINATING" ! ! !
Well, has anyone been thinking about these problems?!?!?
Nope, all we have had is 6 yrs of ISLAMI IS A RELIGION OF PEACE & MOSLEMS ARE INTEGRATING INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY...BLAH...BLAH...BLAH...
Well one has turned out to be a gianormous lie and now moslems are going to show that the other one is false and the stupid infidels that said that the Constitution will protect us will open the gates to shari'ah because moslems will be allowed to practice their jihadist islam unimpeded...
Pertinent Links:
1) Alcohol bothers Muslim cabbies
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment