c. 2007 Religion News Service

Twin Cities Airport Attempts to Crack Down on Muslim Taxi Drivers

(RNS) Airport officials in the Twin Cities are trying to crack down on Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to carry passengers traveling with alcohol or dogs, according to a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

“It is time to draw a line in the sand to make sure people are not refused taxi services,” said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the commission, which oversees Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

A commission subcommittee decided Wednesday (Jan. 3) to recommend public hearings on a policy that would suspend the licenses of drivers who refused service. The step represents a breakdown in cooperation between the airport authorities and local Muslim leaders.

“We have been working with the Muslim community, trying to find solutions that work for everybody. Frankly, we have not able to,” said Hogan, who described a failed effort last year to label taxis with special lights to indicate whether drivers would transport alcohol or dogs. “There was a huge outcry against that idea,” he said.

Beginning several years ago, Muslim taxi drivers have said no to passengers carrying alcohol, or who are traveling with pet or service dogs, said Hogan. As many as 100 passengers were denied service each month. That number dropped in August when the Transportation Security Administration limited carry-on liquids, reducing the number of people traveling with alcohol.

Roughly three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers servicing the airport are Muslim, many of them ethnically Somali, the Star Tribune reported Thursday.

Last year, the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society issued a fatwa, or legal ruling, saying it was a violation of both Islamic faith and the spirit of the First Amendment to insist Muslims transport alcohol, the Star Tribune reported.

Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, however, said a fatwa was only “an opinion,” not a binding edict for all Muslims.

“In the case of guide dogs, the need to accommodate handicapped individuals should outweigh the discomfort Muslims might feel in having dogs in their vehicles,” said Hooper, who urged local Muslim leaders and airport officials to work out a compromise.

The commission’s decision on the issue is expected before May 11, when drivers apply to renew their licenses.

_ Andrea Useem

Study Says 85 Percent of U.S. Dioceses Experienced Thefts

(RNS) Eighty-five percent of U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses participating in a survey of financial controls have detected internal thefts during the last five years, according to a new study.

Though researchers did not put a dollar amount on the money taken, 11 percent of survey respondents reported embezzlements of more than $500,000 during the last five years. Twenty-nine percent reported thefts of less than $50,000, according to the survey. More than 90 percent of the dioceses that detected theft reported the crime to the police.

Of the 177 U.S. dioceses contacted by researchers from the Villanova School of Business’ Center for the Study of Church Management, 78 (44 percent) gave “usable responses.”

“Unlike corporations which provide quarterly financial statements to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and hold quarterly conference calls with outside analysts, the church is subject to almost no recurring outside financial scrutiny,” wrote the study’s authors, Villanova professors Robert West and Charles Zech.

Based on their findings, West and Zech recommend that all dioceses establish fraud policies, conduct internal audits annually and arrange for external audits at least every three years. The professors also recommend setting up a uniform budgeting process with standardized computer software for all diocesan entities and creating communication channels for church workers to report suspected irregularities.

_ Daniel Burke

Grawemeyer Award Goes to Duke University Scholar

(RNS) The 2007 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion has been awarded to a North Carolina scholar for writing a memoir that explores themes of social and spiritual tension in the wake of a racially motivated murder.

Timothy Tyson, author of “Blood Done Sign My Name” and a senior scholar of documentary studies at Duke University, will be awarded $200,000 by the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary as part of the prestigious prize.

Tyson was 11 when two white men murdered a black man in Oxford, N.C. The two men were later acquitted, provoking riots, according to a news release from the Louisville seminary. Tyson’s book intersperses historical events and recent interviews, as well as personal accounts, such as the forced resignation of his father, a progressive white Methodist minister.

“The book explores issues of sin, loss, redemption, conscience, and human decency, and has the gripping, convicting effect of a truthful story,” Susan R. Garrett, director of the religion award and a professor at the seminary, said in a news release.

“Tyson reminds us that changes in race relations have not come about peacefully or quickly, and provokes us to see how much remains to be done,” Garrett said.

The Grawemeyer Foundation at the University of Louisville awards $1 million each year _ $200,000 each for works in music composition, education, ideas improving world order, religion and psychology.

_ Daniel Burke

Quote of the Day: Former President Jimmy Carter

(RNS) “It is true that Jerry and I shared a common commitment to our religious faith _ not just in worshipping the same Savior, but in attempting in our own personal way to achieve reconciliation within our respective denominations. We took to heart the admonition of the Apostle Paul that Christians should not be divided over seemingly important but tangential issues, including sexual preferences and the role of women in the church, things like that. We both felt that Episcopalians, Baptists and others should live together in harmony within the adequate and common belief that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith in Jesus Christ.”

_ Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking at the funeral for former President Gerald Ford on Wednesday (Jan. 3) at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, Mich.

KRE/PH END RNS