A recent development started happening at the MSP airport in the last couple years, people would buy alcohol at the duty free stores and then bring it with them as they left the airport in clear plastic bags. Hailing a taxi, they would be turned away by the Muslim driver because in Islamic law it is illegal to transport alcohol. This left the passenger to wait for the next driver. Being that now 3/4 of the taxi drivers at MSP are Muslim, some passengers were left for a number of taxi's in a row.
The solution that the MSP transportation committee came up with was a two light feature that distinguished whether a driver was willing to transport alcohol. This, in the eyes of this opinion http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200610/COM20061011a.html , this would be a issue of Islam forcing itself on law. " Namely, the two-light plan intrudes the Shari'a, or Islamic law, with state sanction, into a mundane commercial transaction in Minnesota." (A side, I notice that he uses the term intrusion, yet never mentions separation of church and state.)
The author brings up the issue that if this goes through (it was later repealed) where will it stop. Will it be used to keep people off buses? Will it be extended to women showing skin and hair? He then goes on to say that the MSP commission went to a Islamic bod y, the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society, for consultation. From there he starts to state that this society has plans to make the US into a Islamic state.
He uses this as his reasoning for not wanting the two light system. That he views it as a vehicle for Islamic thought and law to be brought into the realm of politics and law. That this is a "stepping stone" (my phrase) to other areas or a "domino effect". hmmm, why does that sound familiar? The term domino effect was used in response to the beginning of the spread of communism. That attitude started us on a path of seeing trouble and trying to "fix" it in countries and regions where we were not supposed to be.
The same attitude is now being compared with how we are seeing trouble in the "axis of terrer (to put it like bush pronounces the word)." We saw that issues started in the world then became internal issues, then spread to the world again. The soviet union is created and a cold war develops between us and them. This turns to internal fear of Communism the "Better dead than Red" phase. The US then started to try and counter communism from developing in countries, getting us into wars We have the situation starting again. And if authors and people with similar thinking become the norm, we could be heading down a road that is worse off than the one we are on now.
I agree with the author's main point that the new system is wrong. But our reasoning is completely different. His argument is that it would give Muslims an "in" to the law system. And that the worst thing that can happen in this world is for us to be understanding and respectful to others beliefs (my own sarcasm). My reasoning counter to his argument is that a separation of any means is the wrong route for this country to go. Counter to his "in", I see it as an "in" for another group. A group that would use this as the opposite, not to go along with one groups beliefs, but to separate that group out and distinguish it. Putting a light on the top of a car may seem like a good idea, but what happens if we have someone disturbed coming through and they now have all their "targets" lit up for them.
Soon we could be marking everything that has to do with every religion, people would have to wear their religious symbol on their shoulder so that everyone knows what things they can do and what they can't do. We would have crosses, crescents,
and even little gold six pointed Stars of David.
1 comment:
I used airport taxi on a friday night after arriving in MPLS for a short weekend trip. My two friends and myslef got into the cab with my luggage. We had two stops. I got out at the first stop as my friend was going home for the evening and offered to take my luggage back to the house for me. I reminded the cab driver that my luggage was in the trunk. When the cab dropped off my friend(5 minutes later) he never popped the trunk so my friend could get my luggage. The cab drove off before my friend could even get to the back of the car. I spent my entire weekend in MPLS calling cab companies to try to find my luggage as we had got into the cab at the Graves Hotel taxi stand. I had to return to new york with out my luggage. My friends eventually tracked down the cab driver with the help of Graves Hotel's and MPLS police's security cameras. Once my friends had the car #, they called Airpirt Taxi and the dispatcher hung up on them 3 times. The dispatcher even tried to insinuate that my friend probably lost the luggage inside his house. My friend finally got my luggage back and found out the driver discovered my luggage in his trunk the day before and never contacted me or reported the luggage to Airport Taxi. Make sure the driver pops the trunk b/f you get out of the car! I was not impressed at all with this company.
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