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 Re: الاسلام على الطريقة الصومالية (Re: NAZIM IBRAHIM ALI)
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Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
Tougher cabbie rules adopted
Airport commissioners say customer service, safety must trump drivers' religious rights
BY EMILY GURNON
In the clash between alcohol-carrying passengers and Muslim taxi drivers, between customer service and religious accommodation, the airport made a clear decision Monday: Customers come first.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted unanimously to increase the penalties for cabdrivers who refuse certain customers, such as those carrying bottles of liquor.
Some cabbies contend their religion interprets transporting alcohol as "contributing to a sin" and thus forbids it.
Commission Chairman Jack Lanners took pains to say how difficult the situation was.
"It's an issue that's not easily resolved," he said.
But in the end, customer service and safety must be the priority for the airport, he said.
One taxi passenger had e-mailed Lanners to say he had taken a cab from the airport with his family, including two children, and was en route to his destination when the cabdriver - upon discovering he had a bottle of liquor - deposited him and his family "in the middle of nowhere," in the dark.
"This is an issue of safety that must be resolved," Lanners said. "We just can't have that, in my mind."
Cabdrivers and their supporters said the airport is blowing the problem out of proportion.
"The number of incidents or complaints is so low," said Abdinoor Ahmed Dolal, a cabdriver who spoke to the commission Monday, opposing the new penalties.
Outside the hearing room, he theorized that the airport is motivated by something other than customer
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service.
"We believe there is pressure behind the scenes," he said. "We don't believe that this is just to satisfy the customer."
Since January 2002, the airport has logged 5,022 "refusals of service" by a taxi driver, and more than 4,800 of them were related to alcohol, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.
But the refusals have dwindled since the Aug. 11 Transportation Security Administration rule that prohibited liquids from being taken through airport security checkpoints. Amounts of 3 ounces or less are now allowed.
Each month, the airport's 900 cabdrivers transport 60,000 fares, Airport Director Steve Wareham said. Of those passengers, 13 were refused service in the month of February. In March, 18 were refused.
Still, Wareham said, no refusals - except for dangerous passengers or those with too much luggage to fit in the cab - are acceptable.
Jeffrey Hassan, a Brooklyn Park attorney who said he was representing the cabdrivers, said he had heard no discussion from the commission about the state constitution's requirement that government make a "reasonable accommodation" for religion.
"I've heard about accommodations for customers. I've heard about accommodations for the passengers. I have not heard one accommodation suggested or discussed for the religious practices of the Muslim cabdrivers," Hassan said.
Thomas Anderson, the commission's attorney, said there are varying opinions among attorneys about how the Minnesota Supreme Court might rule on the taxicab issue.
Hassan said later that he did not know whether he would file suit on behalf of the taxi drivers.
Monday's action culminated a years-long dispute between the airport and its cabdrivers, some 70 percent of whom are Somali. The vast majority of Somalis are Muslim.
Representatives of the two groups have met repeatedly and seemed to have reached a compromise last fall, when they proposed a colored-light system that would identify alcohol and non-alcohol cabs. The airport uses a similar system for smoking and nonsmoking cabs.
But the colored-light idea was thrown out after the public weighed in.
Some passengers told the airport staff that, if cabbies were going to be choosy about customers, they would be choosy too.
"People said they would not get into a Muslim cab at all," said Hogan. "Ultimately, it looked like it was going to hurt some people in the cab industry."
Facing a stalemate, the airports commission held a public hearing Feb. 27, listened to dozens of speakers and logged some 600 additional comments on the issue.
The three hearing officers presented their report Monday morning, before the full commission met. The management and operations committee then voted to recommend the new penalties to the full board, which approved them.
The current penalty for refusing service to a passenger is that the driver must go to the end of the taxi line - a stiff price to pay for cabbies, who may have to wait two to four hours for another chance at a fare.
Under the new rule, which takes effect May 11, a driver who refuses a passenger will have his cab license suspended for 30 days for the first offense and revoked for two years on the second offense.
Hassan Mohamud, a local Muslim prayer leader and adjunct professor of law at William Mitchell, who supports the cabdrivers, said after the vote that they would continue to try to work with the airport.
"I believe the Quran, the scriptures, cannot be changed," he said. "But everything else can be changed. So this is not the end of the world."
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NAZIM IBRAHIM ALI
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست