Frasch Ideas—Examine, Inquire, Explore

How Far Do We Go?

• Posted by Theresa on October 28th, 2006 filed in Anything Goes

Two articles intrigued me yesterday in the Seattle Times: Some Somali cabbies refusing fares with booze in baggage and Rape comment by Islamic cleric stirs up a storm in Australia.

The booze article states that:

In the past few years, a growing number of Somali taxi drivers in Minneapolis and St. Paul have been interpreting Quranic prohibitions on carrying alcohol to include ferrying passengers with alcohol in their bags.

When flight attendant Eva Buzek returned to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from France in March and told a cabdriver to be careful with her bag because there was wine in it, she was shocked at the response she got from the driver, a Somali Muslim.

“He said, ‘I don’t take alcohol,’ ” Buzek said this month. She said she was refused service by three more drivers. In August, Buzek told cabdrivers she had wine in her bag even though she did not, just to test responses. She said four drivers refused her service.

In September, the airports commission proposed putting colored lights on top of cabs to indicate which ones will carry alcohol, a compromise worked out in discussions since May with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. But the commission got about 2,000 e-mails opposing the idea and said this month that it had scuttled the plan.

“Opposition came from both sides,” Hogan said. “There are people who say, ‘If they don’t like the job, they should go back to Somalia.’ And on the other side people are saying, ‘We support diversity, but the Christian right is trying to tell us what to do, and now we’re getting it from Muslims, too.‘ People were saying they wouldn’t take a cab at all.”

Some residents are concerned that accommodating the Somali drivers’ stance against alcohol will open the door to further limits, such as refusing service to women in revealing clothing or to unmarried couples.

The rape comment article states that:

Al-Hilali, 65, is the top cleric at Sydney’s largest mosque. Having been appointed mufti by Australia’s top Islamic body, he is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand.

His remarks about women drew national attention after they were printed Thursday in The Australian newspaper.

In a translation from Arabic by the newspaper, later verified by other media, al-Hilali was quoted as saying in the sermon: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside … and the cats come to eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat’s?” “The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the head scarf worn by some Muslim women.

The issue of how Muslim women should dress has caused debate in Britain since former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, now leader of the House of Commons, said this month that Muslim women visiting his office should remove their veils. Similar passions raged when France banned head scarves and other religious symbols in public schools two years ago.

So my question is twofold, “How far do we go?” and, “How far do we let them go?”

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