Flashback 2007.
The L.A. Times reports:
MINNEAPOLIS — "GET OVER IT," urged the posting on an online bulletin board, "you are in America act like an American!!"
The anger was directed at Somalian immigrants who have roiled this city by declaring certain jobs offensive to their Muslim faith. Many Somalian cabdrivers -- who dominate the airport taxi business -- refuse to transport passengers carrying alcohol. Some Somalian cashiers will not handle pork products; instead, they've begun asking customers to scan their own bacon.
To the immigrants, it's a question of religious freedom -- and protecting themselves from sin.
"This is not something we are choosing to do. It's part of our religion," said cabdriver King Osman, 37. "It's forbidden to carry drink. Forbidden!"
This attitude has outraged many longtime Minnesotans. The widespread response: This is America, and you're free to practice your faith. You're not free to inconvenience others because of those beliefs.
"If they don't want to do that work, they shouldn't be in that business," said Christine Benson, 58, who owns a knitting store in a largely Somalian neighborhood. "They can stuff it."
At least 40,000 Somalis have settled in Minnesota since the early 1990s, fleeing civil war in their East African homeland. The Twin Cities is home to the largest Somalian immigrant community in the nation.
There's more:
Last fall, the Minneapolis transit authority cited the reasonable accommodations law in promising not to assign a driver to buses that carried ads for a local gay and lesbian magazine called Lavender. The driver had objected to the ads -- which carry the slogan "Unleash Your Inner Gay" -- on religious grounds.
The law has also been used to aid Muslim employees. Managers often allow Muslim workers to schedule their breaks to coincide with the five-times-a-day prayer. Target last week reassigned its Muslim cashiers to jobs that don't require handling pork, such as stocking shelves. Other chains have also made such accommodations.
But the taxi driver dispute has resisted easy solutions.
About 70% of the more than 900 drivers licensed to work at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Somalian immigrants, spokesman Patrick Hogan said. In the last five years, 4,854 passengers have been denied service because they carried alcohol.
Doesn't the Democrat party care about gay people???
