What do Muslim airport cab drivers and the Amish have in common?

In filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Airports Commission, a lawyer for the cabbies has cited a 1990 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that granted Amish plaintiffs their desire to avoid using the state’s safety symbols on their buggies.

Like the Amish case, the lawyer, Jeffrey Hassan, is hoping that the judge presiding over his case will rule that his clients’ freedom of religion is violated, and that they were discriminated against.

According to the complaint, filed in Hennepin County Court District late last month, 11 drivers want a judge to issue an injunction asking the commission to suspend a new penalty for cabbies who refuse to transport alcohol-toting customers.

In April, the commission unanimously approved a tough penalty system that went into effect in May. Drivers who refuse to transport customers for any reason beyond safety would lose their licenses for 30 days for the first offense and two years for a repeat offense.

Nine of the plaintiffs are Muslims; the other two are non-Muslims, according to the complaint. They are all African immigrants.

Based on "sincerely held religious beliefs," the Muslim plaintiffs claim that ferrying passengers with "exposed" alcohol "is considered a major sin." They also join the two non-Muslim drivers who accuse the commission of discriminating "against them and other similarly situated black and African-origin taxi drivers by employing a system that degrades, dehumanizes and treats them differently."

Nearly 70 percent of the airport’s taxi drivers are African immigrants, and most of them are from Somalia and Ethiopia.

The plaintiffs also claim that white-dominated limousine and shuttle service drivers are given preferential treatment. For example, taxi drivers have to wait for the next fare in a fenced "holding" area adjacent to the airport. These rules don’t apply to limousine drivers, the complaint said.

Insufficient bathrooms and running water in the fenced area "is remindful of a third-world refugee camp," the complaint said. Drivers are not allowed to leave their vehicles while waiting for the next fare, which can take two to three hours, according to the complaint.

A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment.

Amish won similar case
In a memorandum attached to the complaint, Hassan cites a 1990 landmark case in Minnesota. The state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Amish plaintiffs who, because of their religious beliefs, disobeyed a traffic statue requiring them to display a triangular orange symbol on the rear of their buggies. The state of Minnesota claimed the glow-in-the-dark symbol was supposed to protect both the buggy drivers and automobile drivers.
In that ruling, the court said the state’s Constitution has a "distinctively stronger character than the [First Amendment,]" which broadly addresses freedom of religion.

To prove "compelling" public interest, the court said that "the state should be required to demonstrate that [the matter] cannot be achieved by proposed alternative means … and less restrictive ways."

The airport drivers’ lawsuit cites an alternative agreement reached with the commission last September. Under that agreement, teetotaler cabbies agreed to pay for a distinctive top-light that would signal to booze-wielding passengers that they wouldn’t transport them.

Hassan says that would have been a less-restrictive measure.

The commission scrubbed that plan under immense public pressure. Among other things, the commission cited fears that customers would begin to choose non-Muslim cabbies, which would lead to potential discrimination suits.

Michael Jordan, a law professor at William Mitchell College in St. Paul and expert on employment law, said the burden of proof is on the commission.

"The thrust of the complaint…is to do whatever possible to accommodate deeply rooted religious beliefs," he said. "[The commissin] has to show evidence of its fear and that it exhausted alternative means to address the issue."

Cabdrivers are seeking compensatory damages of $50,000 and attorney fees.

 
The case is still pending.

NEWARK, Del. – Kenyans living abroad are now closer than ever to getting the privilege of dual citizenship, a top official of that country’s government said in June.

Henry Obwocha, the minister for planning and national development, and the keynote speaker at this year’s Kenyan Community Abroad convention in Newark, Del., said that a draft paper had been drawn and leaders were ready for input from Kenyans in the Diaspora. Obwocha told conference participants that both the government and the opposition had agreed on the need for Kenyans to be able to have dual citizenship.

“Nobody is opposed to this (dual citizenship), because we recognize and appreciate the role Kenyans abroad play in the development of Kenya,” Obwocha said.

Dual citizenship has been a dominant issue for Kenyans living abroad. Under current law, Kenyans automatically lose their country of birth’s citizenship upon taking up that of another country. Reforming that law will accord Kenyans in the Diaspora several important benefits, including voting rights and possibly representation in the legislature. Members of the Diaspora have repeatedly said they would invest more in Kenya if they had dual citizenship.

Obwocha urged Kenyans abroad to pressure their political parties for a chance to be represented in Parliament.

“The issue of a Diaspora constituency is a matter of administration,” he said. “In my view the political parties should handle this. If you subscribe to a political party, press the party for a seat. This can be done without any legislation.”

Obwocha appealed for unity in diversity among Kenyans living abroad.

“We want a united country, let us appreciate our diversity,” Obwocha said. “Let it be our strength.”

The minister, an economist by training, told the conference that the government remained steadfast in implementing economic and political reforms. The evidence, he said, was that the economy had recovered in recent years.

Kenya’s economy has been growing tremendously in the last four and a half years, rising to nearly 6 percent last year.

Obwocha asked Kenyans in the Diaspora to invest in building and construction, and tourism, which he said would benefit the country. Kenya had nearly 1.6 million tourists last year and there was urgent need to invest more in the hotel accommodation industry, he said.

“We did not expect our tourism industry to recover as fast as it has done,” he said.
Kenya’s tourism industry, which accounts for 19 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, has suffered setbacks since 1998 when a bomb ripped though the U.S. embassy in Nairobi killing 213 people and injuring an estimated 4,000. Kenya is on the U.S. State Department’s list 27 countries American tourists are advised to avoid.

Earlier in the opening ceremony, KCA President Mkawasi Mcharo urged all Kenyans in the Diaspora to get involved in the formulation of policy in their motherland.

“There is nothing that happens in Kenya that does not affect us,” Mcharo said. “It is our responsibility as Kenyans to participate in setting policies and engage in political discourse. Policies that affect us are created by other people, [but] it’s our duty to engage fully as Kenyans.”

Noting that KCA members are trans-national citizens, Mcharo urged members to contribute equally to Kenya’s development because they were still part of the county despite their absence.

“When Kenyans are in pain we are in pain,” she said. “When they celebrate we celebrate.”

As if to heed Mcharo’s call, several aspiring MPs from the Diaspora were present in their efforts to garner the Diaspora’s support ahead of the general elections scheduled for December. Among them was Reuben Marwanga, who declared he would contest for the West Mugirango seat, currently occupied by Obwocha. Others were John Maina (Embakasi), Jonathan Mueke (Westlands) and Newton Isaac Kinity (Nakuru Town).

This year’s conference theme was “Uniting a People, Building a Nation” and was also KCA’s tenth anniversary celebration. Kenyans from the neighboring states of New Jersey and Philadelphia, the Washington metropolitan area, and from as far as Georgia and Minnesota began arriving late Friday for the annual conference that brings together Kenyans in the Diaspora to discuss development issues of the East African nation.

Minnesota will soon see a change in political involvement and leadership in communities of color. The Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, which has been around since 1971, has made a commitment to tap into this change, says Executive Director Keesha Gaskins. The goal is to work to respond to the political needs of women today, she says.

MWPC recently embarked on a new project that aims to increase the political voice of women of color throughout Minnesota. Dubbed the Diversity Outreach Project, the initiative is funded by the Bremer Foundation and The Women’s Foundation.

“The long-term goal is to increase the number of women of color running for office at all levels, thereby increasing the number of women in elected and appointed office,” says Gaskins.

What MWPC is currently focusing on, however, are the short-term goals listed in phase two of a three-phase program. They include participation at the very core: focus groups throughout the state that reach out to the African-American, Hmong, Latina, and Native American communities. The plans to achieve these goals have been outlined and are currently in action, according to Gaskins.

“The strategy to accomplish this is to develop partnerships and relationships with recognized and emerging women leaders in Minnesota’s four primary racial/ethnic communities and to work together on issues of concern to women in each of these communities,” she says.

Gaskins says part of the project will target African immigrants. MWPC is engaging in partnerships with social service organizations that work with African immigrants to conduct civil engagement training, she added. MWPC hopes to cover all bases and get as much perspective as possible, she says.

“When we say women of color we mean it. We really do mean women of color statewide and that’s what we’re working on,” Gaskins says.

So far, she has traveled beyond the Twin Cities on behalf of MWPC to reach as many communities as possible. She says that each community has a different story to tell, including ideas on politics, levels of political participation, obstacles in voting, sources for political information and collective ideals.

While the needs and issues of each community are different, Gaskin says research reveals that there are similarities in communities across the state. Members in all communities reported that no one had approached them before to find out what their needs were. The various groups also said they lacked education on the political process.

Additionally, the communities complained that politicians only visited their constituents in the last minutes before election when they needed votes.

“There’s a narrow vision of communities of color and that needs to be changed,” Gaskins says.

MWPC will generate a report detailing its findings. The report will include interviews with various leaders in academia and formulate a goal for the second and third years, the last ones of the grant. From there MWPC hopes the program will become self-sustaining.

For more information on the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus and its Diversity Outreach Project focus groups, visit  or call Project Manager Rebecca McDonald at 651-228-0995.