Saturday, October 14, 2006

Free to be you and me

About a year ago, someone put me on a mailing list titled "Free Muslims Against Terrorism". Normally, I would kick, scream, huff and puff about the oxymoron title (NOBODY, I repeat, no one, is *FREE* in this world, whether you're against Opus Dei, or National Rifles Association, or the chapter of NRA that's also part of Opus Dei), as well as how hypocritical it is to include me in the list (Whoa! Me? Against Terrorism? The outrage!). But in my extreme laziness, I let the newsletters pile up in my mailbox, and once in a while choose block select and hit the delete button without ever paying attention to the content.

Well, I just happened to check out today's mail, and thought it was too hilarious not to share. You can read the article by Kamal Nawash, in its entirety at the Free Muslims website.

"The Free Muslims Coalition, a national Muslims organization, condemns Muslim cab drivers who refuse to pick up passengers who carry alcoholic beverages. Recently a dispute arose over a large number of Somali taxi cabdrivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who are refusing to take passengers who carry wine or alcoholic beverages. These drivers are claiming that Islam prohibits them from driving passengers with alcohol. The cab drivers also asked dispatchers not to call them to pick up passengers heading to liquor stores and bars.

The drivers, whose beliefs are not shared by most Muslims, say the airport should accommodate a deeply held religious tenet. Others say the Muslims are discriminating against people of other faiths and attempting to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims.

For two years the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which regulates taxi service at the airport, had been in discussions with cab drivers about how to accommodate them. The commission said it had agreed to let cabbies use lights on top of the cabs to identify drivers who won't transport alcohol so airport employees could direct passengers with alcohol to a willing driver.

However, the proposal created a public backlash by non-Muslims and Muslims who don’t agree with the cab drivers. Consequently, the commission rejected the proposal. That means those drivers who will not transport alcohol must go to the back of the taxi line which can force a cabbie to wait another three hours for a fare."