Cabbies Experience Yet Another Culture Clash

Stories of Muslim dishonesty, robbery, and welfare fraud are clotting the newspapers of late.

Fjordman sent a link to a story in Oslo (as did commenter Jun) about the massive fraud being perpetrated by immigrant taxi drivers. Not only are they systematically cheating their customers and committing tax fraud, but they also illegally receive huge welfare payments from the state:

A series of articles in Aftenposten has highlighted questionable practices among drivers suspected of underreporting income, charging excessive fares and engaging in welfare fraud.

Tax authorities believe that more than 900 taxi owners and drivers have operated in the so-called black market, failing to report all the money they’re taking in, in order to lower their tax liability.

At the same time, more than 500 of these alleged tax cheats have been collecting welfare payments to which they weren’t entitled. Welfare agency officials believe the alleged swindling has cost the city of Oslo more than NOK 100 million.

[…]

New evidence indicates some taxi drivers have also altered the meters in their cars, in order to register much larger tip income. Printed receipts have been thrown in the garbage, to destroy evidence.

Do you remember the on-going problem with Somali taxi-drivers at the Minneapolis airport?

Some Muslim cab drivers are refusing service to a growing number of passengers with alcohol or dogs, and officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are trying to fight it.

[…]

Each month, about 100 people are denied cab service at the airport. Refusals for religious reasons have grown in recent months, airport officials said. About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim.

[…]

Last year, the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society saying “Islamic jurisprudence” prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, “because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam.”

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Fortunately, sanity seems to have prevailed. Minneapolis authorities have decided that these pious cabbies get one strike for refusing a fare. The penalty is to go to the back of the line. Second offense means a license suspension.

If I remember correctly, these are the same folks who were demanding their own prayer room at the airport.

All of this reminds me of a list One Cosmos concocted. It’s from his Muslim Book of Virtues - similar no doubt to the one Bill Bennett wrote for those virtues emanating from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. One Cosmos’ list has a slightly different take on the world.

He says:

I’ve assembled a list of “wise old Islamic sayings” from the book that I think are particularly relevant to our discussion. These are virtual clichés in the Muslim world, but they are probably new to you:

• Sticks and stones will break your bones if your words should ever humiliate me.
  
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try to blame the Jews.
  
• Fool me once, death to you. Fool me twice? I don’t think so.
  
• A penny saved will help finance a martyrdom operation.
  
• There’s something rotten in Denmark. Free speech.
  
• Give a Palestinian a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and the UN will have to feed him.
  
• A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Period.
  
• One picture is worth a thousand riots.

Go here to read the rest of the rules. As you look at his examples, it will help you comprehend the similarities between the cabbies in Oslo and the ones in Minneapolis.

So much for the idea that the differences between us are merely superficial misunderstandings.