In the last few weeks we have seen a lot of media and public reaction
to the Somali cab drivers faith value service at the Minneapolis International
Airport, where some Somali drivers started refusing carriages for passengers
carrying alcohol. Media
headlines starting with the StarTribune: “Got wine at the airport? It's harder
to grab a cab. “Airport taxi flap has a deeper significance …. this issue is
only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota and the United
States” ” Katherine Kerstin at the Strib informed us. ” USA Today: “Airport
Check-in: Fare refusals in Minnesota.” Even the Australian News is weighing in
on this international affair with a headline that reads: “Muslim cabbies
refuse to carry booze.”
People around this country especially are weighing in on this
un-American, unsavory behavior.
"They're really kind of imparting their religious views on the public," said
Katie Patterson of McKinley, Texas. "I can understand if somebody's drunk;
that's a whole different issue. But to just bring in a closed container, maybe
you should look for other work,” she advised. “What next, wearing a head
scarf?” she continued. “Another
reason to hate Somalis!” cried a blogger’s headline. “I haven’t exactly been shy
about how much I despise the Somalis that have taken over the taxi business in
Minneapolis. They are rude, incompetent and usually succeed in pissing me off in
about 5 minutes.” He went on.
Things really have changed these days. Twenty-five years ago before
Somali/Moslems took over the cab business, I drove a cab in the city and served
at the airport. In my brief tenure as a cabbie I never tried to impose any
beliefs on anyone. I offered carriages to drunken passengers who needed help, to
an unpaid prostitute who was thrown in my cab left only with her work garb, to
gays and lesbians who were turned away from bars and night clubs. Passengers who
tried to invoke their beliefs on me, informing me that Jesus could save me from
Hell on brutal Minnesota winter days when Hell did not sound as such bad place
to be. Other passengers tried to convince me that bisexual orientation is a
respectable life style. “You can have it both ways,” they pitched their message.
I never refused a carriage, complained, or even asked for unpaid fair; I was
just an Arab Moslem immigrant doing his job in America, the land of the free.
But why has the Somali drivers’ profiling of passengers at the airport
angered and unsettled so many people? Arab/Moslem passengers are randomly
profiled on a regular basis at the airport and elsewhere; they are turned away
from entering airplanes because they have different surnames or faces, they have
been barred from boarding because they have too many mobile phones, or even
because they wore T-shirts with Arabic script on them. Outside the terminal,
passengers have never been allowed to smoke in cabs even before the public ban
on smoking. Drivers have refused to take passengers who were of African descent
or Native American for years. No one called for jihad against white cab drivers,
who happed to be of Irish or Italian or other European descent. I’m not
defending the Somali cab drivers, nor do I even support their stand on alcohol
at the airport stand. I think they have an obligation like everyone else to
serve the public based on their contract with the Airport commission; this is
not just an American idea, it is also Islamic. A good Moslem is also a good
public servant. Besides, as a Somali journalist friend said to me, “Somali
drivers should be more worried about the alcohol/drug problem in their own
communities than in their own cabs.” Dr. Samatar a professor of International
Affairs at Macalester collage who an expert on Somali culture says: “There is a
general Islamic prohibition on against drinking, but carrying alcohol for people
in commercial enterprise has never been forbidden”.
What worries me most about the public and media reaction is the fact
that in the new post 9/11 Fox News propaganda era, not to mention the Bush
administration’s crusade against Islam and Moslems, Americans are in no mood to
take any grief from Moslems, even if they are only politely asking them to take
their alcohol bottles elsewhere. This is not forcing any beliefs on passengers,
this is reinforcing one’s own personal beliefs. Just like when a doctor refuses
to perform an abortion in his/her clinic, or when a public bus driver refuses to
drive his bus because of gay advertisement on the bus. Somali Moslems are not
trying to impose their beliefs on passengers; they still are willing to perform
their job under non-hostile conditions. Where Christians and Jews do not even
show up for work on their Sabbath, Moslems do show up on theirs (Friday) every
week. We have been celebrating Christmas every year even when our children
don’t even have Santa to wait for. America, in the name of public safety and the
war on terrorism you have willingly surrendered your razors, your nail clippers,
your shoes, and your mouthwash before you step into an airplane. But think about
this: Moslems terrorists killed around 3000 people in the last 100 years,
whereas alcohol kills more than 30,000 people every year, costing the community
billions of dollars. What if in the name of public health you surrender your
alcohol bottle before you step into a Somali cab? Things could be worse - a lot
worse.
Ahmed
Tharwat/ producer and host
Arab
American TV show BelAhdan
Airs
on public TV Ch17
Every
Sunday at 10:30pm