Some Muslim Cabbies Refuse Fares Carrying Alcohol

Some residents are concerned that making accommodations for the drivers' stance against alcohol will open the door to further limitations, such as refusing service to women in revealing clothing or to unmarried couples. In England and Australia, there have been reports that Muslim cabdrivers have refused to take passengers with service dogs; many conservative Muslims consider dogs unclean.

"What's next? Will I have to cover my head or travel with a male companion?" asked Buzek, who immigrated here from Poland 37 years ago and said she expected to have to adapt to U.S. culture.

Somalis interviewed at several late-night coffee shops on a strip of Somali grocery stores, cafes and money-transfer outlets in downtown Minneapolis all thought Muslim drivers should have the right to refuse passengers visibly carrying alcohol.

"If the passengers don't show what they're carrying, it's not a problem," said Abdi Ahmed, 20, working in a lively, no-frills basement coffee shop where young Somali men crowded around a TV set watching soccer. "But if you're openly carrying it, Muslims don't accept that."

Most airline passengers interviewed on a busy Wednesday evening opposed any accommodations for Muslim drivers. "They should just worry about doing their job and getting paid like everyone else," said Perry McGahan, 49, a software engineer from the Minneapolis suburbs.

The controversy comes at a time of growing debate, in Minnesota and nationally, over what happens when the boundaries of religious freedom and job responsibility collide. Minneapolis air traveler Jack Tuomie, 63, compared the taxi drivers' position to that of Christian pharmacists who have refused to dispense the "morning-after" contraceptive.

The Minneapolis transit authority recently decided that a Christian bus driver would not have to drive a bus with an ad for a local gay magazine on it. She had complained that it was against her religious beliefs.

At workplaces nationwide, Muslims have demanded the opportunity to pray five times a day, as their faith dictates. Nine Somali workers at a Cold Spring, Minn., poultry plant filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 6 alleging that they were not allowed to pray during work hours and that supervisors followed them into the bathroom on breaks to make sure they did not pray.

But the situation has improved at the Minneapolis airport since the Transportation Security Administration's ban on carrying liquids on flights. Hogan said that before the ban there were an average of 77 reports of service refusal a month; since Aug. 10 there have been only four a month. "Now it's mainly just people with packages from duty-free," he said. "But we'll continue working toward a goal of no service refusals."