Tuesday, July 03, 2012

If It Was Good Enough for Mohammed…

One interesting facet of this story is that the taxi driver in Madrid was actually Spanish. I can’t remember the last time I rode in a taxi in the USA that was driven by an American, although I did have an English cabbie the last time I was in London (and that was very unusual).

Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for translating this uplifting news report from Alerta Digital:

A taxi driver in Madrid said the following to a Muslim woman who told him to switch off the Western music: “Get out of my taxi and look for a camel to carry you”

Creativity against intolerance. And if they don’t like us, let them go away, because we did not tell them to come. This is what Diego, a taxi driver from Madrid must have thought. He has been denounced for a certain thing which happened last weekend, and which we now tell to the readers of AD.

In Toledo Street (Madrid) , a woman wearing Muslim garments took the taxi which was being driven by Diego. Once inside the taxi, the Muslim woman told the taxi driver to switch off the radio, telling him that due to the rules followed by her, she was not allowed to listen to Western music.

“In times of the prophet there was no such music, nor did the radio exist,” the Muslim woman complained. “Western music is that of the infidels, and I am not allowed to listen to it.”

Although the taxi driver gave way to the requirements of the Mohammed-following woman, and switched off the radio, he stopped at the next traffic lamp, got out of the car, and opened the rear passenger door, where his client was sitting. Astonished as she was, she asked the taxi driver about the reasons for his sudden stop…

“Look, Ma’am, in times of the prophet there were no taxis, so please, get out of mine and look for a camel to carry you to where you want to go,” this great taxi driver answered her. He will now have to face discipline for not giving proper service to his client [sic].

Alerta Digital will make available to him the services of our legal team in Madrid.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice story, but doesn`t it sound like one of those "new urban legends", those "friend of a friend told me" stories (foaf) that we all have heard of by the dozens?

Anonymous said...

I used to have a taxi driver's licence and you were authorised to give, or refuse, a lift to anyone you wanted to. At the end of the day, the decision was yours.

The passenger's logic demanded that she get out of that taxi and start walking, btw.

If she ever pitches up at the Casualty department of the local hospital ... well, she needs to forget that too.

The brass neck of these people. If they want to live under strict shariah law then there are always options - Afghanistan for instance.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure that's the right link? It doesn't load in any of my browsers. Apocryphal or not, I like the sentiment.

Baron Bodissey said...

Anon --

It won't load for me now, either. All I can say for certain is that it's the same one that Hermes sent me to accompany his translation.

Anonymous said...

He is so brave and wonderful man! I really appreciate him. If they don't like our way of life, they can go back where they belong.

KDM said...

Wheather a legend or not it is emblimatic of what is happening in our world. And yes I said "our" world. The entire, or the vast majority of it, modern world comes out of Europe/US. If anti-modern persons what primitive life let them leave our countries and istrumentalities. Ride that camel, see the witchdoctor and back to bow and arrows. I doubt if there would be many takers for that type of life.
KDM

Hermes said...

It truly does not load! how strange. Here's another link to the news: http://www.burbuja.info/inmobiliaria/temas-calientes/323125-taxista-de-madrid-a-mora-que-le-pidio-que-quitase-musica-occidental-salga-de-mi-taxi-y-busque-camello-que.html

The news was entirely copied from the (late?) piece of news at AD.

Maybe it was censored?

Anonymous said...

How does this work in different countries/cities? I think in some places the driver can do this, while in others it is against the law (but the law is an ass in a lot of places, e.g. under the Obama regime and the Roberts court).
Susan Benton