Cabbies ordered to pick up all riders,

[Lina]

A court fight is likely as MAC cracks down on Muslims who decline alcohol-carrying riders.

Airport commissioners insist it's simply a customer-service issue. But many Muslim taxi drivers say it's an unfair new penalty that violates their religious prohibitions against handling alcohol.
Both sides agree that the dispute, part of a cultural conflict in the Twin Cities that has already drawn national attention, is probably heading for a court challenge, which in turn could become a national test case.

On an 11-0 vote Monday, Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) members voted to crack down on drivers refusing service, making Minnesota the first place in the country to decide how to treat Muslim cabbies who decline to transport alcohol- toting riders on religious grounds.

Starting May 11, any airport taxi drivers who refuse riders will face 30-day suspensions. Drivers will have their licenses revoked two years for a second offense.

"We're just sending a message that if you want to drive here at this airport, you have to take all our customers," said Steve Wareham, director of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Hassan A. Mohamud, an imam at the Islamic Da'wah Center in St. Paul, called the stricter sanctions frustrating and disappointing.

"We see this as a harsh penalty against fellow Americans only because they are practicing their faith," the Muslim scholar said. "This does not reflect the American values of tolerance and accommodation."

Source

 

[Muezzin]

Business is business.

If all the Muslim cabbies were to get together and make their own taxi service, they could have notices in the car windows etc saying that alcohol is prohibited. But since they're working for a non-Muslim company that does not prohibit customers from carrying alcohol, they realistically have to conform to the company's policies or they will be penalised. I think it's futile to even argue the point, since from the company's point of view, allowing their Muslim drivers to refuse custom simply because of alcohol is losing the company money, so they're very unlikely to make concessions.

I'm not sure if trade unions could do much, either.

Situations like these are why we need to make even more of our own businesses with an Islamic slant.

 

[Keltoi]

Yes, Muslim operated taxi services are the only solution to this problem. In the U.S. there are enough fairly large Muslim communities that a taxi service which caters to Muslim sensibilities would make money.

 

[Skywalker]

Can anybody provide a source or at least what they know to be the explicit prohibition of transporting alcohol? Because from what I understand, it's Islamically illegal to transport alcohol for distribution, in other words, alcohol that's going to be sold later on. But if the alcohol has already reached the final consumer, you are not stopping that person from drinking it by not driving them. In fact, the only thing you're doing is saying to them that you don't approve of alcohol, and although that can be seen as "doing something", I don't really know how much of an effect that would have on an individual, if any, in terms of deciding not to drink what he has already bought.