TRYING TO BE MORE SENSITIVE

More moderate Muslims who are engaging and managing their assimilation into American Society are alarmed at the most recent trend among orthodox Muslims to make what they feel are arrogant, unrealistic demands that put an extraordinary burden on our society. Their concern is mirrored by many other Americans though not seemingly by many in our society who seem hell bent on leather to totally compromise our values and security by accommodating the beliefs of this small minority, no matter how absurd or how high the cost.

All around the country taxi cab drivers of the Islamic persuasion are refusing to pick up passengers who may have alcohol in their luggage or carrying it on their person. In this day of duty-free airport shops, this conflict has been viewed with disdain by most airport authorities who vow to punish cabbies who persist in this refusal.

Whether these Muslims are doing it on religious grounds seems to have little effect on municipal authorities dedicated to providing transportation services to their visitors and citizens. Some might say if these Muslims cannot provide a service basic to their occupation, they need to find another job. I guess we should be happy that the Amish didn’t demand that automobiles be banned…

This strongly relates to my sensitivity to female Muslim drivers and specifically the niqab clad Ladies in my neighborhood who in the morning at a five miles per hour frenzy and with a green light, turn a one minute trip up Abrams from Walnut to Centennial into a twenty minute (or more) angst as they allow all drivers in side streets to cut into traffic ahead of them as they generally head for the local mosque. While the niqab serves as the ultimate reminder to the wearer that they are Muslim and moves them closer to God, geopolitics relates that this is still to some an unmistakable sign of female oppression and feudal custom. Compared to the shroud of the burqua, however, the eye revealing niqab is perceived by many as a less than fundamentalist statement of female emancipation though (and here’s the point) it would appear to also (like the burqua) impede their vision? It gets worse.

The Might of Right recently learned that Muslims employed in some food markets are now refusing to sell or even handle pork products (including bacon) given the prohibition of these products by Islam. Our Jewish Brothers and Sisters aside, this certainly puts them in a head-on collision course in our Western, mostly Christian majority society. Again, some might say that they need to find another job that they can perform without such restrictions. Handling these products is a bona fide occupational qualification / requirement in the retail grocery industry

Perhaps like the Sepoy Indian Rebellion of 1857 these Islamic citizens once they meet that critical supermarket majority will like the Sepoys, mutiny over the directive that they will have to handle pork or be fired.

It gets even worse. We recently heard about a Muslim student at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College who slipped and hit her head while trying to wash her feet in a bathroom sink as part of an Islamic religious ritual (just picture this one). There is now a move afoot (ahem) to install ritual foot washing basins in its bathrooms. The foot basin trend seems to be catching on at other universities nationwide and will require the expenditure of millions and millions of dollars in order to install these special foot baths. Whatever happened to those nice portable plastic basins (just asking)?

The Rev. John C. Blackford, Religion Columnist for the Forest Lake Times of Minnesota relates a recent Canadian report which recommends outright educational grants for Islamic students because Islam, “opposes usury and involvement with interests-bearing loans.” Notwithstanding the current sub prime mortgage loan crisis, there goes the old economy! Sign me up!

The Reverend Blackford further reflects that this same Canadian report also, endorses, “women-only” time in athletic facilities, and urges schools to “provide curtains or screens over the observation windows” when women are using the pool.” I guess that means they wouldn’t consider sharing a lane… Might of Right wouldn’t be surprised if the author of this report wasn’t none other than often controversial Canadian imam, Ally Hindy.

This gets even more ridiculous as the characterization of illegal immigrants via Mexico as merely “desperate, humble and hard-working people seeking the American dream” now includes Islamic terrorists. It is conceivable that members of Al Qaeda can continue to cross the border illegally, get their driver’s licenses or IDs at any number of state and local entities (say hello San Francisco) and then enjoy the American dream until like the Walter Wager 1977 novel, Telefon they are activated and sent on their nefarious missions.

Perhaps they will be little niqab or even burqua-clad Muslim Ladies driving slowly and politely down our main streets. They will soon bring us to an absolute standstill.

Aye,

Ned Buxton