I hopped into Realclearpolitics as I do every single day to see what is going on in the political world. Lately, I feel as though the site has been giving more of a center-right group of opinions by giving Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin more articles than Sen. Ted Kennedy and so forth but that's just me.
But today I found an article that "Really grinds my gears" as Peter Griffin would say.
More on the flipsizzleside
Katherine Kersten wrote a decent article about Muslims extremists in Minnesota called "Shariah in Minnesota? Radical Muslim activists go fishing in troubled waters."
You can read it at this link
When I first read the title, I was also fairly skeptical. Like so many of the readers on this website, I believe that unfair views of Muslims after 9/11 and that Virgil something congressman from Virginia are the real extreme thing. But what I actually read in this article irked me. Check this out...
Troubling incidents began several years ago, when taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport--about three-quarters of whom are Muslim--started refusing to transport passengers carrying alcohol. One woman, returning from France with wine, was turned away by five cabs in succession. Refusals of service now number about 100 a month, and heated altercations have erupted.
What's going on? It appears that both local circumstances and activists with a big-picture agenda play a role. Take the taxi drivers. Minnesota is home to tens of thousands of Somalis, most recent immigrants. Behind the scenes, moderate local Somali leaders are engaged in a power struggle with national Muslim organizations that seek to exploit this vulnerable population. Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol but not its transportation, say Somalis who reject the taxi drivers' stance. Yet in June 2006, the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Minnesota chapter issued a "fatwa" forbidding drivers here from carrying alcohol to avoid "cooperating in sin."
Earlier this month, the six imams filed suit in U.S. district court in Minneapolis against US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission, claiming discrimination and defamation. Now some Muslim cashiers at Twin Cities Target stores have begun refusing to scan pork products, like bacon and pepperoni pizza, and insisting that other cashiers or the customers themselves do it.
This is ridiculous guys. Why don't you just attach Saudi Arabia to a thousand helicopters and fly it over and drop it onto the US. You know what this reminds me of? Catholics in Illinois that have refused to sell birth control or the plan B pill to customers. Keep your religious views off of me!
My best friend is a vegan, so it's no meat, dairy, or anything involving animal byproducts for things as specific as wines filtered through animal products or other stuff you wouldn't even expect. But he doesn't refuse to be my friend or hang out with me because I eat meat. He also doesn't refuse to eat with me at a restaurant when I choose to eat meat.
I'm sure this won't really turn into anything bigger, but it's got to stop. If you don't want to drive people with alcohol, than don't be a taxi driver! If you don't want to touch or help someone consume pork, don't work for a grocery store! I'm a liberal democrat but that doesn't mean I won't hold open doors or bag groceries like I used to for people that just might be Republicans. Why don't you refuse to live in the same state/country/world/universe as people who would be so radical as to enjoy Miller Lite on a Friday night in college.
You can make your own decisions, but how dare you try to inflict your radical beliefs on me. I'm no longer from Minnesota, but if I had flown back there after visiting Tuscany when I was in Italy, and they refused to drive me because I brought back some wonderful wine, then I would be verrrrry pissed off.
They can believe whatever they want, and I will respect them. But they can't force their ideals on me under any circumstances.