Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Minnesota Cabbies Create A Ruckus
Recently, Islamic cabbies working in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have been denying service to customers carrying alcohol. They say that the Koran condemns alcohol as the “mother of all evils”. To transport alcohol would be a terrible sin for a Muslim. 70% of the cabbies in the area are
muslim. This position taken by many cabbies in Minneapolis has raised many complaints. People are left standing at the airport just becausethey are carrying a whine bottle. The MAS (Muslim American Society) responded to the complaints by stating that transporting alcohol is a sin, and that the cabbies should coniinue to deny service to those carrying alcohol. To compromise the situation, the MAC (Metropolitan Airports Commission) said they would color code the cabs in order to seperate the Muslim and non-Muslim cabs. This was not recieved well, however, and many compaints were sent to the MAC.
Not all Muslims are “gung-ho” about this new action taken by the cabbies. Muqutedar Khan, a political science professor at Delaware University, believes that this movement is more of an attention-getter than a serious profession of faith. He says that followers of Islam in the US have become very concerned with preserving their culture but put little effort in putting the teachings of Islam into practice. Also, This sort of happening has never ocurred in any other airport in the US so far. He says that if it was a serious issue, then we would have heard about this much earlier than now.
It could be said that the Islamic cabbies have a right to practice their beliefs however they want to. However, I feel that these cabbies are doing the wrong thing. I understand that they have their principles. This does not mean that they need to force their beliefs into other people’s lives. If they are working in an environment that forces them to sin, then they should find a new job, however harsh that may sound. I would not work in a place that published pornographic material, and if my job suddenly required me to do such, I wouldnt say, “I refuse o do that, even though you are paying me to!” The company would have just as much right to publishing the material as I would to be a Christian. So, The Muslims need to see this in the same way. These cabbies need to find an environment to work in that is Islam-friendly. It is important that they do not expect the American society to change just for them. America is home to hundrens of different ethnic groups, not just the Muslims.
Bergin, Mark. “Get Out Of The Cab”.World. November, 2006:1.