Muslim cab drivers refuse to take certain fares?

Question

the cab company was going to give into wishes for muslim cab drivers to install a special light on their cabs showing potential fares that if they have alcohol on them they will not be picked up, citing religious differences. Is this right?

read YAK WRITER's answer and click the Star Tribune article link they provided.

The question is about picking up those who have alcohol on them, not that they are intoxicated.

Answer 1

A two-tiered airport taxi system could lead to 'Chapter Two'

Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune
Last update: October 16, 2006 – 12:02 AM

Imagine you're returning from a trip with a bottle of French wine to celebrate your wedding anniversary. At the airport, you drag your bags out to the taxi stand in the cold breeze. As the cab pulls up, you hoist your suitcases, eager to get home.
But when the driver spots your wine, he shakes his head emphatically. The Qur'an prohibits him from accepting passengers with alcohol, he tells you. OK, so you'll take the next cab. But the next driver waves you off, and the next.

Scenes like this have played out hundreds of times at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport over the last few years. About three-fourths of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim. In September, the Star Tribune reported that one flight attendant had been refused by five drivers, because she had wine in her suitcase.

Taxi drivers who refuse a customer, except for safety reasons, must go to the end of the taxi line.

They face a potential three-hour wait for the next fare. Muslim drivers asked for an exemption, and officials of the Metropolitan Airports Commission proposed color-coded lights on cab roofs to indicate whether the driver would accept a passenger carrying alcohol.

But last week, the MAC announced that it would not adopt the new policy. Officials cited an overwhelmingly negative public reaction, among other reasons. "I've had over 500 e-mails and calls, and not one supported the change," said Patrick Hogan, MAC spokesman.

Why? Aren't Americans accustomed to granting modest legal accommodations to groups or individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs?

For many people, Hogan speculates, the issue may have been bigger than drivers' reluctance to transport alcohol. "I think people were afraid there would be a Chapter Two."

In some other cities, "Chapter Two" has already begun. Muslim cab drivers elsewhere, for example, have refused to transport blind customers with seeing-eye dogs, which they say their religion considers unclean. On Oct. 6, the Daily Mail of London reported that two cab drivers had been fined for rejecting blind customers. In Melbourne, Australia, "at least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints" after similarly being refused service, the Herald Sun reported.

In Minneapolis, Muslim taxi drivers have repeatedly refused to transport Paula Hare, who is transgendered, KMSP-TV, Channel 9, reported this month.

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, wrote about the MAC's two-light proposal in the New York Sun on the day its rejection was announced. While the proposal seemed like a common-sense compromise, he wrote, on a societal level, it has massive and troubling implications. Government sanction of a two-tiered cab system would amount to an acknowledgement that Shari'a, or Islamic law, is relevant to a routine commercial transaction in the Twin Cities. The MAC, a government agency, would be officially approving a signal that differentiates those who follow Islamic law from those who don't.

And what if Muslim drivers demand the right not to transport women wearing short skirts or tank tops, or unmarried couples? After taxis, why not buses, trains and planes? Eventually, in some respects, our society could be divided along religious lines.

The negative reaction to the two-tiered solution does not spring from hostility to Muslims. Muslims have thrived in America. On average, they are well-integrated and have higher incomes and more education than other Americans, according to Peter Mandaville, director of the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University in Virginia.

America offers Muslims an important advantage beyond economic opportunity. We are a more religious people than Europeans, and so more respectful of religious belief. The first freedom guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, after all, is the free exercise of religion.

But the issue at the MAC seems to raise nagging "Chapter Two"-related questions. It suggests that -- if we don't handle such matters right -- down the road could lie a legally sanctioned religious separatism that is incompatible with America's unifying civic vision.

Answer 2

It is something that they can technically get away with. Unlike public transportation cabs are privately owned and in most cases drivers are contract employees that have the right to refuse service to any one they feel uncomfortable serving. It is the same as with pizza delivery. They refuse to deliver to certain ZONES due to the high probability of being robbed or simply not payed. As well as the overwhelming factor of post 911 discrimination for which they have a legitimate cause to not want to pickup fares when they appear intoxicated which could possibly lead to an emotional fare whom feels they have the right to be offensive, disrespectful, abusive or any of the many other undue, unjust actions that they encounter on a daily basis especially in the the more patriotic states where they are constantly bombarding the general public with theses ad campaigns showing them as the enemy period. I'm sure you have seen at least one of these ad's by former high ranking Gov. Officials

Answer 3

I have heard of this before and no it isn't right. The Muslims are expecting us to adapt to them rather than they adapting to us. How would everybody react if Christian cab drivers put a light on their car indicating that they find burkas offensive and will not pick up Muslims. Boycott that company.
BTW, many of the answerers think that you are talking about drunks when in fact the cabbies are refusing to take people who are carrying a bottle of alcohol on them. Like if I went to the liquor store to buy a bottle of Gin and needed to take a cab home, I could not use the ones with the light on them.

Answer 4

NO it's not right. They know the rules when they apply for the job. If you don't like the rules....find another job.

There was also the case in Great Britan where a muslim cab driver refused to pick up a female fare who was blind because she had a guide dog....and he said muslims don't like "unclean" dogs.

He says he doesn't care what the taxi commission does to him.....he'll keep refusing service dogs. THIS is what uncontrolled immigration leads to.

If you don't like OUR culture.....stay in a muslim country...or if you're here?.....go back to where you came from!

Think I'm making the guide dog story up?....Read it for yourself.

Answer 5

In America the law of the land is that most business establishments observe the right to refuse service to anyone.

More cabbies are killed on the job than any other profession and it's usually drunkards that cause the major problems, so I don't balme them if they refuse to pick up drunkards.

Knowing all of this now, would you?

Answer 6

Hmm...interesting dilemma. On one hand, you don't want drunk drivers on the road. On the other hand, having a drunk person in the cab becomes a safety issue. And, cab drivers are allowed to be selective of the fares they choose.

Answer 7

Don't know what city you're talking about, but I highly doubt this. It would be the same argument about pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills - that's been determined to be lllegal, and it would be similar for this situation you're talking about.

You know, Mormons and a lot of others would presumably feel the same as Muslims on this. Something tells me you've heard a divisive and hateful rumor.

Answer 8

no a lot of muslims are just scared some hick will hurt them (a lot of criminals get drunk or high before they comit crimes so they try to justify it and say i was blacked out as a defense).....they don't want to say this b/c they don't want to look/sound scared so they say it a "religious thing" what business you know will turn down money??? their drivers safety come 1st

Answer 9

No. Licensed offerors of service to the public have a duty to serve anyone, irrespective of their personal beliefs; failing this, their license should be lifted. This applies to pharmacists also.

Answer 10

Amazing how they might get special privileges for being Muslim, but what about Christians?

Can we refuse someone that is GAY? It is against their religion too isn't it?

For the one who says it is their right. I do not disagree. HOWEVER, refusing a fare puts you back at the end of the line.
They are going to ALLOW them to not go to the end of the line.

If someone that was NON-Muslim did that, they would be immediately sent back to the end... That is not right. (Equal protection clause of the Constitution rings some bells??)