USA Today reports: "Scores of Muslim cabdrivers in Minneapolis who say their faith prohibits them from driving passengers with alcohol have sparked a debate over how far a government must go to accommodate Islamic law.
Muslim cabdrivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have been refusing to take passengers who carry wine or spirits from duty-free stores or who are loaded down with bottles after visiting wine country.
They’ve also asked dispatchers not to call them to pick up passengers heading to liquor stores and bars."
And then note this: "One driving force behind the move to accommodate the drivers’ beliefs is the Minnesota Chapter of the Muslim American Society.
MAS was founded by U.S. members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which promotes the spread of Islamic influence through political parties and militant groups in the Middle East. MAS members say they do not promote violence."
A nice illustration -- and there are many, many others -- of the hard truth in Professor Putnam’s study: Diversity is not necessarily a strength. It brings problems. Society must have a dominant culture, and sooner or later, it always does.
If the dominant culture doesn’t act like one, it will become not only a minority culture, but a weak and persecuted one.
You speak the truth...diversity is seldom a strength. Having diverse cuisine is nice, and enlightened discourse with people from around the world is cool, but at the on-the-street-day-to-day business of running a society, cultural hegemony is essential.
Of course, to some here at NLT, such attitudes make one a bigot. They are foolish people, however.
They have an absolute right to refuse service to anyone they want, their employers have the absolute right to fire them and everyone else has the absolute right to boycott them if their employers refuse to fire them.
Maybe they should ask Keith Ellison, aka Keith Ellison Mohammad, aka Keith Ellison X, Democratic nominee for the house, what he would do to put an end to such discrimination by Muslim cabbies. But then, why bother? Any answer he would give would be another lie. But then again, why not bother? The important thing would not be his answer, the important thing would be the fact that voters are on to him, his lies and his affiliation with the Nation of Islam.
Update from LGF:
For now, though, taxi drivers who refuse to carry these travelers will continue to forfeit their place in the taxi queue and return to the back of the line, which often means a three-hour wait for another fare.
Well, if pharmacists can refuse to perform their job - dispensing legal pharmaceuticals - because of religious objections, then why shouldn’t these guys be able to do the same? Frankly, I think both the pharmacists and the cabbies should find new lines of work.
Dain, I don’t think you’re a bigot for advocating "cultural hegemony." I think you’re a bigot because you think culture is determined by one’s DNA.
But pharmacists don’t have a plan to exert political influence over the country over time and eventually govern it under Mosaic law. The cabbies do. This sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud REAL fast before we start having small Muslim communities trying to pass laws banning women from exposing their skin in public and whatnot.
Well, John, I’m glad we got that cleared up. My problem with you is that you are pretending to be a conservative, and not surprisingly I find you all too willing to use the vicious cultural weapons of the Left to villify people.
P.S. Do you have any proof DNA plays NO role in culture? My hypothesis, that it plays some role, is a reasonable one, while yours, that it plays NO role whatsoever, is akin to the radical nurture position that has been falsified lo these many years.
Uncle Guido has a great point. Let the free market system carry the day. I hope an enterprising idividual opens a cab company with big liquor ads on the sides of the cabs.