Post #49

Alias: "You can tell me to shut up or go to hell but neither will happen. What we do know is if you get punched in your nose, your nose will be busted and you will bleed all over your nice shirt."

Please show us all where the big bad mean ole Alias said he was going to punch you in the nose. You along with your homo buddies seem to have the classic comprehension deficiency so prevalent among your species. Twit.

Now then, hopefully the homos will let us return to the topic.

Here is another case of Dhimitude:

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 01/03/2007 | Airport hesitant to grant Muslim prayer room

OOOOh baby , talk to me ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

YouTube - Cherrelle | I Didn't Mean To Turn You On | (1984)

Airport hesitant to grant Muslim prayer room
Somali immigrant leaders also ask directors for signs in native language, exceptions for cabbies
BY EMILY GURNON
Pioneer Press
Somali immigrants passing through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport want a private place to say Muslim prayers. The airport suggests they share a room with people of other religions.

Like a new couple learning to dance, immigrants and their adopted countries often trip each other up, and the prayer-room issue is just one of the latest tangles between Somali immigrants and other Minnesotans.

"Where you have Christians and Muslims praying at the same time, it will create a problem," said Fuad Ali, a Somali leader who spoke at a meeting of community members and airport officials Tuesday in Minneapolis.

The prayer debate was sparked Nov. 20 when six imams — Muslim religious leaders — were removed from an airplane after they had been seen praying in public. According to witnesses, the men also made anti-American remarks, asked for seat-belt extenders they didn't need and spread out to different areas of the plane.

The imams took another flight the next day.

But the incident drew worldwide attention. Muslims decried the treatment of the men, saying it was discriminatory, embarrassing and fueled by false rumors. Others praised the airline for taking the men off the plane, saying safety must come first in the post-Sept. 11 age.

Ali said Tuesday that he and other Somalis want a prayer room so they will not be faced with a similar incident.

"What can guarantee that will not happen again?" he said.

Airport Director Steve Wareham said if the airport provides a special area for Muslims to use, it potentially would have to accommodate other faiths the same way.

"Our request would be you try the quiet seating area," he told the Somali immigrants.

That existing area is a carpeted room that contains chairs but no religious symbols. It has been used for years but was never obvious to travelers, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan. The airport intends to install more signs directing people to it on the mezzanine level near the Chili's restaurant, near the entry to the F Concourse.

At the same time, there is no restriction on praying in other parts of the airport, Wareham said.

Other issues continue to rile some Somali immigrants. Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Somali immigrants in the country. The state estimates about 25,000 Somalis live here, though community leaders say the number is closer to 60,000.

Many of the airport's Somali taxi drivers refuse to accept passengers who are carrying liquor, because their faith forbids it. The airport says it is a customer-service issue and has forced drivers who refuse fares to move to the back of the line, which can mean a wait as long as three hours for another fare.

Wareham said he would recommend to the airport's management operations committee that it hold a public hearing on the matter. He favors stiffening the penalties against cab drivers who refuse fares for any reason other than their own safety.

"To be refused service by a taxi driver is, frankly, seen as an insult, and we don't want our customers to experience it," Wareham said.

Somalis assembled at Tuesday's meeting at the Darul Quba Mosque in Minneapolis also wanted to know whether the airport would provide announcements and signs in Somali.

Probably not, officials said.

"The challenge is not inundating the air with messages people might start to ignore," said Arlie Johnson, an assistant airport director.

At least the issue of the prayer room was met with some accommodation, said Abdirahman Hirsi, imam of the Darul Quba Mosque.

"It's a kind of progress," he said. "And we hope the future will be better."

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 01/03/2007 | Airport hesitant to grant Muslim prayer room

Emily Gurnon can be reached at egurnon@pioneerpress.com or 612-338-6516.

Every other religion can use the prayer room. What makes the muslims so damn special all of a sudden? Dhimitude.

Some Muslim Cabbies in Minneapolis Refusing Service to Passengers With Alcohol, Dogs
Thursday, January 04, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS — Some Muslim cab drivers are refusing service to a growing number of passengers with alcohol or dogs, and officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are trying to fight it.

"Our expectation is that if you're going to be driving a taxi at the airport, you need to provide service to anybody who wants it," said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airport Commission.

Each month, about 100 people are denied cab service at the airport. Refusals for religious reasons have grown in recent months, airport officials said. About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim.

The belief that carrying alcohol or dogs, including those that help people with disabilities, violates religious beliefs is "unfortunate," Airports Commissioner Bert McKasy said.

Officials on Wednesday asked the commission for permission to hold public hearings on a proposal that would suspend or revoke drivers' airport licenses for refusing service for reasons other than safety concerns. The commission is expected to vote Jan. 16.

Last year, the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society saying "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam."

Eva Buzek, a flight attendant, said she was recently refused service by five taxi drivers when she was carrying wine as she returned from a trip to France.

"In my book, when you choose to come to a different country, you make some choices," said Buzek, a native of Poland. "I never expected everything to be the same way as in my homeland, and I adjusted. I never dreamed of imposing my beliefs on somebody else."

Muslims do not consume, carry, sell or buy alcohol, and Islam also considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean, Hassan Mohamud, an imam and director of the Islamic Law Institute at the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, told the Star Tribune newspaper.

Mohamud said he would ask airport officials to reconsider.

But many Somali taxi drivers do not have a problem transporting passengers with alcohol and are worried about a backlash, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. Jamal said he supports the tougher penalties.

"We tell the taxi drivers, if you don't want to do this, change your job," he said. "You are living in a country where alcohol is not viewed the way it is in your country."

Hogan said the goal is to have a new policy in place by May 11, when airport taxi licenses come up for annual renewal.

FOXNews.com - Some Muslim Cabbies in Minneapolis Refusing Service to Passengers With Alcohol, Dogs - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

DHIMITUDE

If they will not do their job, fire them and find those who will.

For once we agree. Their religion is their business, but they're hired to provide a service without prejudice, not judge people based on what they do.

Good. Stick around. I'll convert you yet.

As will I, and so we shall become moderate