February 23, 2007

Minneapolis: No Sharia Taxis--for now

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Commission sends word that it has not, and will not, become dhimmis to Muslims demanding that it enforce Sharia law. For now. You'll remember that Muslim cabbies had refused service to blind customers who had seeing eye dogs (dogs are considered unclean) and those carrying alcohol.

Reader Skip sent off an e-mail to the Commission when he first heard about it, but only received an answer from them today. I've reprinted below some of the e-mail written by Emberly Hermann of the Metro Airports Commission in his reply to Skip.

The bad news? They are working with the Muslim American Society, a front group for the radical Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood. The good news? They've proposed increased fines for Muslim cabbies that refuse service:

For the past several months, the Metropolitan Airports Commission has worked with airport taxi industry representatives and with leaders from the Muslim American Society and the Somali Justice Advocacy League. The goal was to find a solution acceptable to everyone and transparent to the customer seeking airport taxi service. Unfortunately, those discussions have not resulted in a workable, voluntary, consensus-based solution.

As a result, the Airports Commission is proposing stricter penalties for refusal of service: a 30-day suspension of a driver's airport taxi license for the first instance, and license revocation for a second instance. [ed-emphasis mine]

Because if you don't go, I can gaurantee you that the Muslim American Society will have their minions out in force. And if there's anything at all that we know about politicians, it is that they often back down in the face of a vocal opposition.