More on bigoted Muslim cab drivers

Blogblather writes:

Lawrence: "Would I be profiling if I guessed that this cab-driver was Muslim? Europe News has the subheading, "No Tolerance for Intolerance -- No Apology for Being Free." A bold statement, that, but why not draw attention to the roots of this cab-driver's intolerance, that is Islam?"
Blogblather: "Profiling"?  I don't think so.  More like expressing your bigotry.  You have no idea what the man's nationality or religion is or of the circumstances at the time of the incident.  You're so eaten up with hostility for Muslims that you probably think Sarah Palin is a Muslim.  She's not.  She's a Republican.  That's worse.
LAWRENCE COMMENTS: Blogblather doesn't seem to have read all the way to the end of my notes or he would have found evidence that the cabbie really was a Muslim. I wasn't making that up. And the treatment by this cabby isn't an isolated incident. But before we get into other incidents here is another report on the subject cabby: http://exposingislam.blogspot.com/2010/11/muslim-cab-driver-refuses-blind-couple.html This is an article published in Britain: The salient portion reads, "In recent years, there have been reports of Muslim drivers refusing the blind due to their doctrine's assertion that dogs are unclean.

"However, the DDA does not consider this an excuse....

"The Muslim revulsion for dogs comes from Muhammad: "Ibn Mughaffal reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered killing of the dogs, and then said: What about them, i. e. about other dogs? and then granted concession (to keep) the dog for hunting and the dog for (the security) of the herd, and said: When the dog licks the utensil, wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time." -- Sahih Muslim 551

"Here again, even in the West, non-Muslims must accommodate Muslim mores -- never the other way around."

Here is a broader discussion of the problem by an Australian publication: http://islammonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3844:fidophobia&catid=265:weird-and-creepy&Itemid=61

"Daniel Pipes has written extensively about Muslims’ problems with seeing-eye dogs, who must by law be allowed into premises. Yet Muslim taxi drivers consistently refuse to allow guide dogs into their cars. (see also http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/11/muslim-taxi-drivers-vs-seeing-eye-dogs )

"Sarah Eady was upset when she was told her guide dog would have to ride in the boot.Picture: Justin Lloyd Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/taxi-driver-told-blind-woman-put-guide-dog-in-the-boot-or-get-out/story-e6frfkvr-1225867465241#ixzz13Xy2PlUB

"In July 1997 a New Orleans taxi driver, Mahmoud Awad, got so incensed at his passenger, Sandi Dewdney, trying to bring a dog into the cab that he physically yanked her out of it by the arm while yelling "No dog, No dog, Get out, get out." He harmed her broken wrist. To this, CAIR replied by pointing out that "the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual purity needed for prayer" and left it to the scholars of Islam to decide whether a guide dog should be allowed in a cab. The judge, after researching Islamic attitudes and finding no support for the driver's claims, called his behavior "a total disgrace.

"In Melbourne, where about 20% of the city's 10,000 taxi drivers are Muslims, the Herald Sun reported :

"Muslim taxi drivers are refusing to carry blind passengers with their guide dogs. At least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints with the Victorian Taxi Directorate.

"Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the association had appealed to the mufti of Melbourne to give religious approval for Muslim cabbies to carry guide dogs. 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. (source)

"Despite their legal obligations to allow guide dogs, Muslims will often flout the law:

"A LEGALLY blind woman was refused entry to a taxi unless she put her guide dog in the boot. About 35 per cent of all people with guide dogs have been refused entry to a taxi in the past 12 months, despite hefty fines for cabbies who fail to comply.

"Sydney woman Sarah Eady was at Central Railway's taxi rank when a driver refused to let her five-year-old guide dog Ally into the front seat.

"'I opened the door and he said 'Can you sit in the back with the dog' and I told him the dog was trained to sit in the front,' she said.

"'He said he didn't want the dog in the front and then he asked me to put Ally in the boot.' Ms Eady said she was often refused entry to taxis because of her dog.

"However, the latest incident was particularly frustrating because it flew in the face of a recent Guide Dogs NSW awareness campaign that specifically targeted cabbies.

"Advertisements featuring the slogan 'Any dog can chase a car, ours can catch a cab' have been placed on the back of taxis throughout Sydney.

"Muslim taxi drivers regularly refuse to carry blind passengers with guide dogs - including Australia's Human Rights Commissioner - with many citing religious reasons, or other excuses like allergies. Human Rights and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, who is blind and reliant on his guide dog Jordie, is a regular Sydney cab user and said he was refused service on average once a month.

"One way to resolve this dilemma is to pander to Islamic sensibilities and use other animals as guides, as in Dearborn, USA:

"Seeing-eye dogs are a nonstarter among many Muslims who consider the animals unclean, but a horse the size of a dog just might work.

"'This is a really awesome little horse," Mona Ramouni said, as she put Cali, a 3-year-old miniature horse, through her paces and rode the bus to work with her.

"Ramouni, a proofreader of textbooks in Braille, wanted more independence, but a traditional guide dog wasn't an option. She's an observant Sunni Muslim and respects her Jordanian-born parents' aversion to having a dog in the home

"The answer is Cali, who stands about 2 1/2 feet tall and weighs about 125 pounds.

While most Muslims believe dogs can violate ritual purity, horses are seen as "regal animals," says Dawud Walid, executive director of the CAIR's Michigan chapter.

…Since Ramouni had never used a dog, she had to learn how to control a guide animal. She was partially successful at training a pet dwarf bunny named Baylea — "she does come when I call her," Ramouni says — and has worked hard with Cali.

"It's made (Ramouni) so much more empowered," said fellow proofreader Kelli Finger. She said Cali has gotten along well with the guide dogs in the office, including her own 9-year-old black Labrador. (source)

"Hmm, I can foresee problems here, when CAIR complain that the office guide dogs are contaminating Ramouni, so she must be provided with her own office – at the firm’s expense, of course! Remember, once you start pandering, the demands never stop.

"However, I’m impressed that she could train a pet dwarf bunny. This opens up endless possibilities for guide animals. Maybe we can use those with a true Aussie flavour – a seeing eye wombat maybe!

"DOGS Victoria provides Therapy Dogs, where volunteers visit aged care homes:

"Ramouni, a textbook proofreader, wanted more independence, but a traditional guide dog wasn't an option. She's an observant Sunni Muslim and respects her Jordanian-born parents' aversion to having a dog in the home where she lives along with three of her six siblings.

"These visits by the therapy dogs and their handlers are making people’s lives a little brighter with visits from many diverse breeds including Rottweiler, Labrador, Great Dane, Borzoi, Corgi, Kelpie and Keeshond.

"All of the dogs are tested for their suitability to deal with many of the unexpected things that they will encounter in their visits. Things that they will not normally come across in everyday life like, wheelchairs, walking frames, walking sticks and hospital equipment. They must also be sensitive to the ways of the elderly and infirmed.

"Organiser Nicki Abell wanted to share those benefits with even more people.

"Clinton the Mastiff visits psychiatric patients in Berwick…

"Wellington the Collie (Rough), visits dialysis patients in Cranbourne."

FURTHER COMMENT: Billy Blogblather obviously has a prejudice against those who won't accept the Leftist-Liberal idealistic party line about Fundamentalist Islam. As for me, my prejudice is against immigrants who move into a Western society and won't accept or at least be tolerant of its customs. What gall someone must have to move into a foreign nation and insist that it accept his standards and customs. If he can't accept a foreign nation's standards -- or at least be tolerant of them -- then he should stay in his home country. What, his nation is too poor to pay him a living wage? That should tell him something right there, but that is his problem and he shouldn't heap his problems upon a host nation.