stephanie
03-13-2007, 06:05 PM
Interesting article..
12 Mar 12, 2007 - 7:10:10 PM
Muslim taxi drivers serve airports throughout the country. Yet a dispute about cabbies refusing on religious grounds to take passengers with alcohol has flared only in the Twin Cities.
Some Muslim leaders said the alcohol controversy is part of a larger ideological clash within Minnesota's growing Somali community, which they said helps explain why the issue erupted here without spreading to other cities.
"There is a group of orthodox Islamic groups who are using the Somali community," said Martin Mohamed, head of the Immigrant Credit Education and Financial Counseling Agency in Minneapolis. "We have seen this all the time. They want to make their own political agenda here, using the Somali cabdrivers."
Other community leaders said the alcohol matter is a legitimate issue of faith, one in which committed Muslims are standing up for their religion.
"It's not for radical purposes," said Abdirahman Omar Ahmed, the imam, or prayer leader, at the Abuubakar Islamic Center in South Minneapolis. "They are talking about their faith, nothing else."
Either way, some community activists said they worry the flap will spark a backlash that hurts Somali immigrants and other Muslims.
"Most community organizations like mine and others work toward building relationships and networking," said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community of Minnesota. "I'm concerned that when I try to place a woman in a factory or a person on an assembly line, I worry that the employer will think: 'Oh, don't hire this person; they might want to change the rules of the work site.' You don't want that kind of baggage."
Fahia said he was speaking only for himself, not his organization.
Although the cabdriver dispute has only recently heated up, the issue didn't surface overnight. It's been brewing as far back as 2000, and even as long as there have been Muslim drivers here, some cabbies say.
The drivers insist that Islamic law forbids them from taking passengers who have sealed bottles of wine or other liquor in their luggage, because that would mean they are participating in a sin. Airport officials said some Muslim drivers also have expressed concern about picking up passengers with dogs, citing religious concerns about the animals' purity.
After trying to work with Muslim leaders — at one point ditching a compromise plan involving colored lights for "non-alcohol" taxis — the Metropolitan Airports Commission now appears poised to clamp down on drivers who refuse customers. Airport staff have recommended increasing the penalties, including suspending drivers' airport taxi licenses for repeat violations. The commission is expected to vote next month.
Several Somali leaders said they have been asked by community members to give their opinion on the issue. Ahmed, whose mosque is said to have the largest Somali membership in the Twin Cities, said taxi drivers asked him about a decade ago for a fatwa, or Islamic legal opinion, about whether they should allow alcohol in their cabs.
His answer to the cabbies: Don't do it.
That fatwa was never written down. But last year, when the cabbies were negotiating with the airports commission for some accommodation of their faith, the drivers asked the Muslim American Society of Minnesota for a written fatwa. That ruling, issued in June, seconded Ahmed's stance.
But some Somalis suspect there's more to the taxi dispute than religion.
"The Twin Cities has become — more than any other city — the center of fanaticism and extremism as far as Somalis are concerned," said Omar Jamal of the Somali Peace and Justice Center in St. Paul.
The rest of the article at....
http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Islam_28/Airport_taxi_controversy_Why_here.shtml
12 Mar 12, 2007 - 7:10:10 PM
Muslim taxi drivers serve airports throughout the country. Yet a dispute about cabbies refusing on religious grounds to take passengers with alcohol has flared only in the Twin Cities.
Some Muslim leaders said the alcohol controversy is part of a larger ideological clash within Minnesota's growing Somali community, which they said helps explain why the issue erupted here without spreading to other cities.
"There is a group of orthodox Islamic groups who are using the Somali community," said Martin Mohamed, head of the Immigrant Credit Education and Financial Counseling Agency in Minneapolis. "We have seen this all the time. They want to make their own political agenda here, using the Somali cabdrivers."
Other community leaders said the alcohol matter is a legitimate issue of faith, one in which committed Muslims are standing up for their religion.
"It's not for radical purposes," said Abdirahman Omar Ahmed, the imam, or prayer leader, at the Abuubakar Islamic Center in South Minneapolis. "They are talking about their faith, nothing else."
Either way, some community activists said they worry the flap will spark a backlash that hurts Somali immigrants and other Muslims.
"Most community organizations like mine and others work toward building relationships and networking," said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community of Minnesota. "I'm concerned that when I try to place a woman in a factory or a person on an assembly line, I worry that the employer will think: 'Oh, don't hire this person; they might want to change the rules of the work site.' You don't want that kind of baggage."
Fahia said he was speaking only for himself, not his organization.
Although the cabdriver dispute has only recently heated up, the issue didn't surface overnight. It's been brewing as far back as 2000, and even as long as there have been Muslim drivers here, some cabbies say.
The drivers insist that Islamic law forbids them from taking passengers who have sealed bottles of wine or other liquor in their luggage, because that would mean they are participating in a sin. Airport officials said some Muslim drivers also have expressed concern about picking up passengers with dogs, citing religious concerns about the animals' purity.
After trying to work with Muslim leaders — at one point ditching a compromise plan involving colored lights for "non-alcohol" taxis — the Metropolitan Airports Commission now appears poised to clamp down on drivers who refuse customers. Airport staff have recommended increasing the penalties, including suspending drivers' airport taxi licenses for repeat violations. The commission is expected to vote next month.
Several Somali leaders said they have been asked by community members to give their opinion on the issue. Ahmed, whose mosque is said to have the largest Somali membership in the Twin Cities, said taxi drivers asked him about a decade ago for a fatwa, or Islamic legal opinion, about whether they should allow alcohol in their cabs.
His answer to the cabbies: Don't do it.
That fatwa was never written down. But last year, when the cabbies were negotiating with the airports commission for some accommodation of their faith, the drivers asked the Muslim American Society of Minnesota for a written fatwa. That ruling, issued in June, seconded Ahmed's stance.
But some Somalis suspect there's more to the taxi dispute than religion.
"The Twin Cities has become — more than any other city — the center of fanaticism and extremism as far as Somalis are concerned," said Omar Jamal of the Somali Peace and Justice Center in St. Paul.
The rest of the article at....
http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Islam_28/Airport_taxi_controversy_Why_here.shtml