Taxi
Daniel Pipes addresses an issue simmering in our own backyard at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport: "Don't bring that booze into my taxi." Pipes's column notes the proposed "two-light" solution to the issue raised by the refusal of Muslim taxi drivers to transport passengers visibly carrying alcohol. The AP reports, however, that the Metropolitan Airports Commission has rejected the solution, which was itself problematic, as unworkable:
The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) had been working with the Muslim American Society and taxi companies on a pilot program under which drivers who won't take riders carrying alcohol would put a different top light on their cabs. That would have allowed airport employees to direct these travelers to willing drivers.Pipes teases out the broader unacceptability of the proposed two-light solution:But the MAC said the public response was overwhelmingly negative, and some taxi companies feared that people opposed to the system would switch to other forms of ground transport instead of cabs.
[O]n a societal level, the proposed solution has massive and worrisome implications. Namely, the two-light plan intrudes the Shari‘a, or Islamic law, with state sanction, into a mundane commercial transaction in Minnesota. A government authority thus sanctions a signal as to who does or does not follow Islamic law.The column posted at Pipes's site is full of links and highly recommended. Pipes follows up his column with additional notes here.What of taxi drivers beyond those at MSP? Other Muslims in Minneapolis-St. Paul and across the country could well demand the same privilege. Bus conductors might follow suit. The whole transport system could be divided between those Islamically observant and those not so.
Why stop with alcohol? Muslim taxi drivers in several countries already balk at allowing seeing-eye dogs in their cars. Future demands could include not transporting women with exposed arms or hair, homosexuals, and unmarried couples. For that matter, they could ban men wearing kippas, as well as Hindus, atheists, bartenders, croupiers, astrologers, bankers, and quarterbacks.
