How to Send a Cab Driver to Hell
If your driver is a Moslem, apparantly all you have to do is stash a tiny bottle of vodka down the back seat of the car, and you damn his eternal soul to hell. The cabbies in Minneapolis-St. Paul are demanding that their religion be respected and are refusing to allow passengers in their cabs if they get off of the airplane with duty-free liqour. They think they will go to hell for it, and they also apparently refuse to transport anyone with a seeing eye-dog.
Cause Mo’ was a cat lover, dontca know.
From CNS News here:
Don’t Bring That Booze Into My Taxi
Starting about a decade ago, some Muslim taxi drivers serving the airport declared they would not transport passengers who were visibly carrying alcohol — in transparent duty-free shopping bags, for example. This stance stemmed from their understanding of the Koran’s ban on alcohol.
A driver named Fuad Omar explained: “This is our religion. We could be punished in the afterlife if we agree to transport alcohol. This is a Koran issue. This came from heaven.” Another driver, Muhamed Mursal, echoed his words: “It is forbidden in Islam to carry alcohol.”
The issue emerged publicly in 2000. On one occasion, 16 drivers in a row refused a passenger with bottles of alcohol. This left the passenger – who had done nothing legally wrong – feeling like a criminal. For their part, the 16 cabbies lost income.
“Airport authorities are not in the business of interpreting sacred texts or dictating anyone’s religious choices,” Hogan points out.
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.
You know, stashing a tiny vodka bottle in a Moslem’s cab wouldn’t be as much fun as pretending to find a bottle. You could produce it from the back seat and tell the cabbie it must have been there for a very long time. Then, you sit back and enjoy the expression on his face. While eating pork rinds. Its not a hate crime.
