[Rhodes22-list] Politics - The Camel's Nose Is Well Inside The Tent

Thu Oct 26 07:41:55 EDT 2006

OK, folks, we may disagree on Iraq and most other issues but this should be
a no-brainer.  This article is from Slim's newspaper published this
morning.  Despite Slim's bias against the author, she's been all over this
story. How can we stem the growth of Islamic radicalism outside our country
if we don't have the balls to stop it domestically? This is PC  gone wild.
As Paul Harvey would say, "and now for the rest of the story."

Brad

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 [image: StarTribune.com] <http://www.startribune.com/> KERSTEN102606

Last update: October 25, 2006 – 9:50 PM
Airport taxi flap about alcohol has deeper significance The airport taxi
controversy may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate
Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol.
Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is
apparently playing out.

*Katherine Kersten,* Star Tribune
The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has
caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the
quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to
carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power
and religious authority is apparently playing out.

At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a
favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end of
Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside.

An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport
controversy was raised.

"I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport,"
said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking
alcohol in a taxi."

Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get his
license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."

Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits cabdrivers
from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The
consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to
transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic law,
several men said.

Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at
Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic
prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people in
commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in Somali
cultural practice or legal tradition for that.

"This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali
community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."

But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers with
alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission
spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious edict,
that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic jurisprudence"
prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it
involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."

The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of the
Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society officials.

The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the MAC.
That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the
controversy's outcome.

How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of Human
Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this
problem," Hogan said.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he knows
why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis in
Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not Arabs,"
he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think they
are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda. They
look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the
community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are
vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."

*The society*

What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago Tribune
published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in 1993,
the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the
Muslim Brotherhood operates.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The
Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential Islamic
fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood
has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the
often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the paper
reported.

The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and politics
cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic,"
according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow American
laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a majority
will support a society governed by Islamic law.

How are society members to respond when questioned about a Muslim
Brotherhood connection? The Tribune cites an undated internal memo: "If
asked, 'Are you the Muslim Brothers?' leaders should respond that they are
an independent group called the Muslim American Society."

The April 2001 issue of the society's magazine, the American Muslim, lists
"essential books" for understanding Islam. They include works by Hassan
al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, and Sayyid Qutb, one of its most
violent theoreticians.

Here's the flavor of these authors' writings:

"Always cherish the intention of jihad and the desire for martyrdom in the
Way of Allah, and actually prepare yourself for that," wrote Al-Banna.

Osama bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb in formulating his world view,
according to the 9/11 Commission. Qutb had "an enormous loathing of Western
society and history," states the commission's report. He taught that "no
middle ground exists" in the "struggle between God and Satan." All Muslims
must therefore take up arms in this fight, he said.

Hassan Mohamud is vice president of the society's Minnesota chapter. The
society is independent and has no connection with the Muslim Brotherhood, he
said.

The Minnesota chapter's website, however, states that the organization's
roots lie in the Islamic revival movement that "brought the call of Islam to
Muslim masses ... to reestablish Islam as a total way of life."

Mohamud says the society has three goals: to present the "real image" of
Islam in American society, to preserve the identity of Muslims here and to
"make that identity fit without having clashes between cultures and laws."

He emphasizes, however, that Muslims must follow shari'a, or Islamic law, in
every aspect of their lives. "There are two conflicting systems here -- two
ways of life -- that want to live in the same place and respect each other,"
he says. The society aims to facilitate conciliation between the two.

Mohamud adds that Americans need to learn about Islamic law because the
Muslim population here is growing. That's why the proposed two-tier system
for airport cabdrivers is important, he says. It could become a national
model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to contractual
arrangements to the workplace.

MAC officials will hold another meeting today about the airport controversy,
and Mohamud says he will try to revive the two-tiered pilot project for
taxis. Whatever the meeting's outcome, we now have reason to believe that
the issue is only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota and
the United States.

Katherine Kersten • kkersten at startribune.com