Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Offended Cabbies Cry Intolerance

Okay, let’s say you fly into Minneapolis-St. Paul. Let’s say you’re carrying alcohol — rum from the Caribbean, a Merlot you found in Napa Valley. Let’s say you try to hail a cab while carrying said alcohol.

Good luck. You’re going to need it.

Three-quarters of the drivers serving the airport are Muslims, most from Somalia, and in recent years, many have refused to carry passengers carrying alcohol because Islam frowns on liquor.

Muslims claim that they want to assimilate, but in reality they don't. It's the same old story...ISLAMIC INTOLERANCE.

Dozens of passengers have reportedly been left stranded. Occasionally, even blind people using Seeing Eye dogs have been refused passage by drivers citing Islamic teachings that the saliva of dogs is unclean. Unclean? Personally, I would rather ride with the seeing eye dog any day.

Refusing fares from blind people with seeing eye dogs is a clear violation of the law, but as yet, no prosecutions.

Discriminating against the handicapped obviously is considered a minor offense, at least when compared to discriminating against Muslims.

After simmering for years, the issue has come to a boil. The metropolitan airport commission scheduled a public hearing to discuss stiffening penalties for the wayward cabbies.

As things now stand, a driver who refuses to carry you and your booze has to go back to the end of the cab line and wait hours for another fare. According to a report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, new rules have been proposed that would require a 30-day suspension for a first offense and revocation of a cabbie’s airport license for two years after the second.

That's not good enough. Immediate termination for those who refuse to carry Americans with legal alcoholic products and criminal prosecution for those who refuse seeing eye dogs.

Sounds good to me, but Khalid Elmasry disagrees. He’s spokesman for a group called the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. Here’s the MASM’s idea: Color code the taxis according to whether the drivers accept alcohol.

Great...another Islamic group seeking special privileges for Muslims. Will it ever stop?

"We will not see this perfect solution,” wrote Elmasry last week in USA Today, “even though it meets everyone’s needs. In an environment of fear and misunderstanding of everything Muslim, tolerance has become too much to ask."

Notice who Elmasry has labeled intolerant? Not the Muslim drivers but the American passengers who are being refused. Wouldn't it be better if the Muslim drivers just did their damn job? Is that too much to ask?

This is a group of men who refuse to do their jobs because of a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. You’re entitled to your religious beliefs. You’re not entitled to require your employer or customers to go to extraordinary lengths to accommodate those beliefs.

Why is it that Muslims have the hardest time comprehending this? Why is it that Americans must go to extraordinary lengths to accommodate their beliefs? Let them drive their cabs back in Baghdad where these conflicts wouldn't exist.

And what’s next? Will the drivers refuse to serve homosexuals or Jews or women without veils? Will they decline to ferry a customer to a bar or barbecue joint? Will we let everybody in every profession reject any customer whose race, culture, religion or moral choices offend?

No. Because that is anathema to this nation’s ideals. And the sooner certain Muslim cabbies understand that, the better.

You want a “perfect solution”? Fine, here it is: Muslim cabbies should do their jobs. Period.

16 Comments:

At 7:45 AM, Blogger WomanHonorThyself said...

hiya AC..exactly!...to discuss stiffening penalties for the wayward cabbies????
..they should have their rears fired on the SPOT!

 
At 8:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually the saliva of a dog has less germs than humans (unless they were chomping down on something nasty).

Ducky you say dont over-react and then relate that the group causing trouble is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood?

It sounds like AC was right on the money.

 
At 8:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am fairly certain if these cabbies were refusing to pick up gays or people in Che shirts the Duck would change his tune.


ALFACK@!!!!!!!!!

 
At 9:37 AM, Blogger American Crusader said...

"We are better off when they come out of the shadows."

I agree with that but now that they've come out of the shadows, we need to make an example out of this type of behavior.
Living in New York, I couldn't imagine a cabbie turning down a fare and getting away with it.

 
At 12:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The thing is, if there ISN'T a huge public outcry against this sort of thing, it will just slide by.

We have to overreact just to be heard, and get around the cries of "bigot!"

I agree with penalizing cabbies who will not do their jobs. If you cannot do the work due to your beliefs, then do not take the job.

Good grief, this is like a Catholic taking up a job in a porn shop and then complaining because he has to sell smut.

 
At 1:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tell me ducky, where in the bible does it say thou shall not sell birth control pills?

You see we have come to a full circle now. You are complaining about Christians the way we complain about Muslims.

Hmmm...

 
At 4:23 PM, Blogger Always On Watch said...

As FN mentioned, the Muslim American Society is the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. That connection would explain why MAS is taking the position mentioned in this blog article.

Refusing fares from blind people with seeing eye dogs is a clear violation of the law, but as yet, no prosecutions.

No prosecutions? Why the hell not?

Beak,
I am fairly certain if these cabbies were refusing to pick up gays or people in Che shirts the Duck would change his tune.

The former could happen, under strict Islamic law.

 
At 5:45 PM, Blogger American Crusader said...

I think ducky has a good point. This group is looking for a reaction. If we overreact, they will use it to prove Islamophobia and bigotry but what is needed is a united stance that forces their hand.
They need to be the ones who look bigoted.

 
At 8:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm.

This makes me want to take along a bucket of chitterlings along for a cab ride in NY and then start to bathe myself in the back seat with the pork intestines, making squealing sounds like a pig.

 
At 2:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Take away their licences and fine them. If they break the law they should not be immune to the consequences. No community should be forced to put up with this kind of nonsense.

Ducky: the Tampa case, although a foolish one, has nothing to do with Bible-thumpers. The only reason for thinking it does is the public prattlings of the unfortunate lady's lawyer. I doubt you trust that sort of information any more than I do.

 
At 10:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ducky,

You say that you are complaining about fundamentalist nut jobs of all stripes, but in practice you spend all of your time downplaying Islamic fundamentalism and exaggerating Christian fundamentalism.

 
At 11:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ducky, although your reference to religious people as "thumpers" is a bit unclear, working in a pharmacy and refusing to sell birth control, ect. is wrong. As I said, if you don't want to do the work, don't take the job. A pharmacist can easily find work in a setting that will not present him/her with such moral problems, such as a geriatric care facility, a hospital, or a private pharmacy that can do whatever the heck it wants.

Bad behavior by one group does not justify it by another. "Fundamentalists" on either side of the isle are wrong... So why let Islamists have a pass while decrying the "Fundies?"

 
At 11:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, and retaining a script without filling it is stealing. Period.

Since scripts are basically treated as a controlled substance, I'd be worried that some serious crap would be hitting the fan on that one.

 
At 2:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would be a breath of fresh air if you were so confident that Christians can follow rules too.

 
At 12:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I get some strange google searches from Minneapolis landing at my blog from time to time. Like 'hand shake infidel' or 'lipstick islam'. Of course, its not 100% definitive, but I get the feeling there's some oddness going on in that area.

 
At 6:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ha haa haa haaaaaaa...

I see that you are using your Site Meter, UI.

Perhaps you have stumbled upon a cell of Anti-lipstick Mujahideen cabdrivers.

 

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