Muslim cabbies refuse to carry booze
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
October 02, 2006
MUSLIM taxi drivers in Minnesota have declared jihad on duty-free, refusing to carry passengers who are carrying alcohol.
The ban has created chaos at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, where about three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers are Somali and mostly Muslim. Airport officials have begun working with taxi drivers to install colour-coded lights on taxi roofs to indicate which are alcohol friendly and which are not.
The lights are expected to be introduced by the end of the year.
Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight years, said the ban was "a religious issue".
"I cannot force anybody to change their belief, but not in my cab," he said. "I don't want the guilt. I just want to be an innocent person." Eva Buzek, a flight attendant who grew up in Poland, said that when she asked a driver to be careful with her suitcase because it had wine in it, he dumped her bags and told other drivers not to carry her either. Four more refused her service.
She said the ban went against American values.
"I don't want to impose my beliefs on anyone else," she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "That's why I'm in this country, because of the freedom.
"What's going to be next? Do I have to cover my head?"
Airport spokesman Pat Hogan said drunken passengers had not had trouble getting a cab, just the ones who let on that they're carrying a bottle. "It's slowly grown over the years to the point that it's become a significant customer service issue for us."
The Koran strictly forbids buying, selling, drinking or carrying alcohol.
There are an estimated five to seven million Muslims in the US. They have never had political representation in Congress, though that could be about to change this November thanks to Minnesota's Keith Ellison, a Muslim convert who is a Democrat frontrunner in Congressional mid-term elections next month.
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
October 02, 2006
MUSLIM taxi drivers in Minnesota have declared jihad on duty-free, refusing to carry passengers who are carrying alcohol.
The ban has created chaos at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, where about three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers are Somali and mostly Muslim. Airport officials have begun working with taxi drivers to install colour-coded lights on taxi roofs to indicate which are alcohol friendly and which are not.
The lights are expected to be introduced by the end of the year.
Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight years, said the ban was "a religious issue".
"I cannot force anybody to change their belief, but not in my cab," he said. "I don't want the guilt. I just want to be an innocent person." Eva Buzek, a flight attendant who grew up in Poland, said that when she asked a driver to be careful with her suitcase because it had wine in it, he dumped her bags and told other drivers not to carry her either. Four more refused her service.
She said the ban went against American values.
"I don't want to impose my beliefs on anyone else," she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "That's why I'm in this country, because of the freedom.
"What's going to be next? Do I have to cover my head?"
Airport spokesman Pat Hogan said drunken passengers had not had trouble getting a cab, just the ones who let on that they're carrying a bottle. "It's slowly grown over the years to the point that it's become a significant customer service issue for us."
The Koran strictly forbids buying, selling, drinking or carrying alcohol.
There are an estimated five to seven million Muslims in the US. They have never had political representation in Congress, though that could be about to change this November thanks to Minnesota's Keith Ellison, a Muslim convert who is a Democrat frontrunner in Congressional mid-term elections next month.
