Let's talk about discrimination, shall we? - Granite Grok

Let’s talk about discrimination, shall we?

Update 1

 Now add to the list that Muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis-St Paul – transsexuals (Fox 9)

This is starting to turn out to be quite the collection of identity politics groups!  Forget the ring, we’re going to need a CAGE MATCH! 

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Or is it racism?  Or is in religious intolerance to a sub-group, or a sub-group’s intolerance towards a given religion?

Well, it isn’t a Christian religion, nor Jewish, Hindu, Shinto, Zorasterism, American Indian, Mayan, Wiccan, Voodoo, or pagan (of many derivatives).  Yup, Islam has put itself into the news, once again.Now, to be sure, it isn’t even about an imam or a mosque, or even an advocacy group (like CAIR)!  Saints preserve us!

First, from News.com.au is this story:

MUSLIM taxi drivers are refusing to carry blind passengers with their guide dogs or anyone carrying alcohol.

At least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints with the Victorian Taxi Directorate. Dozens more have voiced their anger. And there have been several complaints that drivers refuse to allow passengers to carry sealed bottles of alcohol.

[snip]

One Muslim driver, Imran, said yesterday the guide dog issue was difficult for him. I don’t refuse to take people, but it’s hard for me because my religion tells me I should not go near dogs," he said.

Wouldn’t this then, be a clue, to NOT put yourself into a situation where you will discriminate against someone who does not share your religious beliefs?  Do I dare say chutpah? 

Oh, and LGF is reporting more here, in Britan and Norway. 

There are about 2000 Muslims among drivers of Melbourne’s 10,000 taxis. Many are from countries with strict Islamic teachings about "unclean" dogs and the evils of alcohol.

[snip]

Guide Dogs Victoria spokeswoman Holly Marquette said blind people regularly reported taxi drivers refusing to carry them because of their dogs. "It’s sad and quite upsetting," Ms Marquette said. "We try to work with new drivers to educate them about their responsibilities and the needs and rights of blind people.

[snip]

Ms Marquette said there was a legal requirement for taxi drivers, shops, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets to accept guide dogs.

How come their religious beliefs seem to be sufficient to allow them to override the law?

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the guide dog issue would exacerbate the taxi industry’s flagging respect in the community.

Really?  Actually, not.  This is just another entry in what is becoming a long litany of "we shouldn’t have to…" Flagging respect?  Respect is earned, not given.  And if it is "flagging", how about speaking to that? 

"Muslims are good people and the community has to realise that the days of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are well and truly over," he said.

Well, this is going to make points, isn’t it? 

 

And if you think this is just limited to Australia, think again.  From the Long Island Press, we have this:

 

Have you caught up with the story about the Muslim cabdrivers who are refusing to pick up any passengers carrying alcohol at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport?

In other words, if you get off an international flight, say, carrying a bottle of wine in a duty-free bag, they won’t allow you into their cabs. Why? Because the Koran says they should not buy, sell, drink or carry alcohol. (Carrying drunks in your taxi is apparently OK. They just won’t allow people carrying alcohol.)

Of course, they’re entitled to their religious beliefs and to live their lives as they wish. But one might ask what these folks are doing in the taxi business, where they are licensed by the government to provide a service to the public.

The implications of this are staggering.

Will we have Orthodox Jewish cabdrivers refusing to pick up anyone carrying pork? Hindu cabdrivers driving right past ranchers and cowboys who might have herded sacred cattle? Or even vegan cabdrivers turning down service to anyone carrying a Big Mac?

And why is it only cabdrivers imposing their personal beliefs on the rest of us?

 

If I were to purchase an apartment building, I would not be allowed to discriminate, on the basis of my religious beliefs, against renting to a couple that are unmarried.  Especially if they were the same sex.  If these same cab drivers came to me, I could not do to them what they would me (I like taking my dogs for rides (even if they are not service dogs)). 

If this kind of thinking catches on, we could soon see an Evangelical bus driver refusing to stop for passengers in a Wiccan neighborhood.

Or a secular, left-wing-liberal traffic cop giving out speeding tickets to any car sporting a “Limbaugh for President” bumper sticker.

And why not a right-wing-conservative MTA train conductor refusing service to anyone who can’t produce a green card?

Which brings us to sports fans—a group as opinionated and irrational and, yes, religious about their favorite teams as any people on earth. (If you pray for Derek Jeter to get a hit and win the game in the bottom of the ninth, that makes you religious, in my book.)

I’ll never forget the subtlety and sophistication of a bumper sticker I saw in Boston a couple of years ago. It simply read “F—K THE YANKEES.” If that person turns out to be an IRS tax inspector, all we Yankee fans are in trouble. Claiming a tax deduction for box seats in Yankee Stadium will certainly invite a major audit.

Tricky questions arise: If a city sanitation worker, for example, is a rabid Yankees fan and notices a “Go Mets!” sign in a house window, can he refuse, on emotional or religious grounds, to take away that person’s garbage? Does he have to call headquarters for backup to get the garbage removed by a Mets fan, or by an impartial and baseball-neutral sanitation worker?

And can you even consider hiring a graduate of Ohio State for your law firm after their team trampled your sacred University of Michigan Wolverines? Where does a rational person draw the line?

All this deserves serious thought, and I’m afraid that the anti-alcohol stance of the Muslim cabdrivers in Minneapolis could just be the start.

When private religious beliefs trump the public interest and the common good, we’re in for some rocky times.

 

 

Now, here is the question that I pose – while I cannot speak to Australian laws, I think I’m on pretty solid ground that if I tried this, a middle aged white Baptist guy, the LEAST I’d get whacked with would be a fine.  More likely, I’d be arrested for discrimination, my name and mug plastered all of the news, and excoriated to within an inch of my life for my bigoted views.

How come they folks are seeming to get kid glove treatment? Why the double standard?  Your comments (please)?

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