[Rhodes22-list] Hey Slim! What's Up With This

Brad Haslett flybrad at gmail.com
Sat Sep 30 08:34:42 EDT 2006


Slim,

I may have to re-think my admiration of Somali cab drivers.  Here's the
article from yesterday's Strib.

Brad

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 [image: StarTribune.com] <http://www.startribune.com/> TAXIS092906

Last update: September 28, 2006 – 11:36 PM
Got wine at the airport? It's harder to grab a cab About three-quarters of
the 900 taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are
Somalis, many of them Muslim. About three times daily, would-be customers
are refused taxi service when a driver sees they're carrying alcohol.

*John Reinan <jreinan at startribune.com>,* Star Tribune
When flight attendant Eva Buzek returned to Minneapolis from a trip to
France, five taxi drivers refused to take her home from the airport. The
reason? She had two bottles of wine in her suitcase -- and the drivers were
Muslims, who don't drink and refuse to have alcohol in their taxis.

About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport are Somalis, many of them Muslim. And about three
times each day, would-be customers are refused taxi service when a driver
sees they're carrying alcohol.

"It's become a significant customer-service issue," said Patrick Hogan, a
spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, on Thursday.

Now the airports commission has a solution: color-coding the lights on the
taxi roofs to indicate whether a driver will accept a booze-toting fare. The
actual colors haven't been decided on yet, but commission officials met
Thursday with representatives of the taxi drivers and the Minnesota chapter
of the Muslim American Society to continue working on the plan.

The airports commission has struggled with the issue for several years.
Alcohol is a serious concern for devout Muslims, said Hassan Mohamud, an
imam and vice president of the society. The Qur'an, Islam's holy book,
strictly forbids buying, selling, drinking or carrying alcohol.

The observant drivers object only to transporting openly displayed alcohol,
said Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight
years. They won't search passengers or quiz them about what's in their bags.


"It is a religious issue," Culed said. "I cannot force anybody to change
their belief, but not in my cab. I don't want the guilt. I just want to be
an innocent person."

Hogan said taxi starters at curbside will look for duty-free bags with
bottles or other obvious signs of alcohol and steer riders to cabs whose
drivers don't object to booze.

Buzek, the flight attendant, said she was refused service in March after she
told a driver to be careful with her suitcase because it had wine in it.
Other drivers in the taxi line passed the word, she said, and four more
refused her service. A dispatcher finally steered her to a driver who would
take the fare.

Buzek, who grew up in Poland, said her treatment goes against American
values.

"I came to this country and I didn't expect anybody to adjust to my needs,"
she said. "I don't want to impose my beliefs on anyone else. 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?"

Mohamud said that wouldn't happen.

"According to Muslim law, a Muslim driver cannot question a person's faith
or beliefs," he said. "It's not a matter of the person, it's what the person
is carrying."

If other religious issues come up, they'll be dealt with on a case-by-case
basis, Hogan said.

"We can't promise that we can accommodate every religious belief," he said.
"Our interest is in making sure people can get a cab."

John Reinan • 612-673-7402


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