DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - MINNESOTA: MOSLEM DEMANDS IRK MINNESOTANS

Muslim scruples irk Minnesotans
Residents resent Somali immigrants' refusal to do work violating their religious beliefs
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times


MINNEAPOLIS — "GET OVER IT," urged the posting on an online bulletin board, "you are in America act like an American!!"
The anger was directed at Somali immigrants who have roiled this city by declaring certain jobs offensive to their Muslim faith. Many Somali cab drivers — who dominate the airport taxi business — refuse to transport passengers carrying alcohol. Some Somali cashiers will not handle pork products; instead, they've begun asking customers to scan their own bacon.
To the immigrants, it's a question of religious freedom — and protecting themselves from sin.
"This is not something we are choosing to do. It's part of our religion," said cab driver King Osman, 37. "It's forbidden to carry drink. Forbidden!"
This attitude has outraged many longtime Minnesotans. The widespread response: This is America, and you're free to practice your faith. You're not free to inconvenience others because of those beliefs.
"If they don't want to do that work, they shouldn't be in that business," said Christine Benson, 58, who owns a knitting store in a largely Somali neighborhood. "They can stuff it."

...

Marian Psihos runs a pharmacy here on Cedar Avenue. She gets her hair cut at the Muslim-owned beauty shop upstairs; she hands candy to the Somali children who peek shyly in her store. But the idea of cabdrivers turning away passengers on Allah's command spikes her blood pressure.

"You can't come over to this country and think you're going to have it your own way," said Psihos, 72. "The whole world isn't going to change just because you're Muslim."

Jon Wohlwend, punching his code into the pharmacy's ATM, looked up, sharing her outrage.

"You call a cab, but he can't give you a ride," he started.

"Because you have alcohol on your breath," Psihos said, finishing his thought.

"I mean, that's why I need the ride!" said Wohlwend, 39. "Because I'm hammered!"

He left shaking his head. A moment later, Tsega Maoln, who runs the beauty parlor upstairs, popped in for an extra-large can of Comet cleanser. An Ethiopian immigrant, Maoln is Muslim, but not orthodox; she was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and gossiping about a recent night at a bar with friends. Even so, she said she believed more traditional values must be accommodated.

"You don't think they should change the taxi rules for you, do you?" Psihos demanded.

Maoln, 39, tried to formulate an answer.

"You better think twice," Psihos warned, "or you'll lose a customer!"

Maoln busied herself digging cash from her purse.

Last fall, the Minneapolis transit authority cited the reasonable accommodations law in promising not to assign a driver to buses that carried ads for a local gay and lesbian magazine called Lavender. The driver had objected to the ads — which carry the slogan "Unleash Your Inner Gay" — on religious grounds.

The law also has been used to aid Muslim employees. Managers often allow Muslim workers to schedule their breaks to coincide with the five-times-a-day prayer. Target last week reassigned its Muslim cashiers to jobs that don't require handling pork, such as stocking shelves. Other chains also have made such accommodations.

But the taxi driver dispute has resisted easy solutions.

About 70 percent of the more than 900 drivers licensed to work at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Somalian immigrants, spokesman Patrick Hogan said. In the last five years, 4,854 passengers have been denied service because they carried alcohol.

The Somalis contend that all those passengers were quickly seated in another cab. Just as there are smoking and no-smoking taxis, they say, there should be alcohol and no-alcohol cabs.

"Nobody asks you what's in your luggage," said driver Abikar Abdulahi, 24. "But if it's in a box that we can see, we can't take it."

If they ever did knowingly transport alcohol, the drivers say, they would have to answer to God on Judgment Day.

Hogan said the refusals had become "a significant customer service issue." Drivers may legally refuse to carry passengers who appear drunk or dangerous, but otherwise may not pick and choose. Under current policy, drivers who refuse a fare are sent to the back of the taxi line, where they may wait hours for another passenger. Much tougher penalties will be up for a vote next month. Drivers would be suspended for 30 days for a first offense and would lose their airport license for two years for a second offense.

Spokesmen for two national Muslim organizations said they had not seen similar conflicts anywhere else. The refusal to transport alcohol (and to scan pork products) appears limited to Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities.

Their strict interpretation of the Quran does not have universal support among local Muslims.

"It has taken us years to develop relationships with mainstream groups and employers. This concerns me a lot. All the goodwill can be wiped out," said Saeed Fahia, who runs the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota.

He and other immigrant advocates fear that the drivers and cashiers have been manipulated by religious extremists trying to spark a confrontation.

"It becomes us vs. them, Muslim vs. American," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul.

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E-mails to local newspapers suggest that such divisions are hardening. Although some urge tolerance and accommodation, others express deep resentment.

"Why do we have to adapt to them, they came to OUR country," read one of the hundreds of comments posted online in a forum sponsored by The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"(Do) I have to hide my Star of David necklace to get service . . . do I have to wear a burka?" another asked.

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Assessing the clash from afar, David W. Miller, author of the book "God at Work," said he saw it as a case of recent immigrants "struggling to learn what it is to live in a country that lives by civil law, not (Islamic) law."

Miller, executive director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University, said that when the Somalis took their jobs, they knew what they would be required to do: Scan every item in a grocery cart; drive every passenger who needs a ride. If they can't do the work, he said, they should look elsewhere.

"Chances are," Miller said, "the laws of this country will trump their religious tradition."


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