MINNEAPOLIS, 17 April 2007 — A panel within a state organization that oversees Minneapolis-St. Paul’s airport yesterday approved tougher penalties for cab drivers who refuse service to customers carrying alcohol, in a case which some Muslims have said would require them to violate religious tenets or face sanctions.
Under the new penalties approved by a Metropolitan Airports Commission panel, a driver’s airport taxi license would be suspended for 30 days for the first offense and revoked for two years for a second offense. The penalties passed on an unanimous voice vote and were to be voted on by the entire commission later yesterday, said Commissioner Mike Landy.
The issue went before the panel after a months-long dispute in which passengers said they were being denied taxi service by some Muslim drivers if they were transporting alcohol. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials say more than 70 percent of the cab drivers at the airport are Muslim.
The drivers, however, have argued that Islam forbids the carrying of alcohol. In the months before the decision to consider stiffer penalties, the commission proposed a compromise that would have let Muslim drivers display a different-colored light on their cab if they did not want to pick up passengers carrying alcohol.
But that proposal triggered a huge backlash, from both passengers and other taxi drivers who feared it would make travelers avoid taxis altogether.
Cab driver Abdinoor Dolal called the penalties punitive and asked commissioners to take a measured approach.
