The Taxi Jihad

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about a passenger who missed a flight to Uganda because the Muslim taxi driver had to stop to pray on the way to the airport. The driver’s version of what happened differs somewhat from the passenger’s.

The translated article from Dagbladet (BI is ‘Norwegian Business School’):

BI professor missed his plane because taxi driver wanted to pray

“I was completely gob-smacked.”

On January 31, BI professor, Øystein Noreng was scheduled to fly to Uganda. He hailed a taxi to take him to Gardermoen (Oslo Airport), but en route the taxi driver pulled over onto the shoulder of the E6, stepped out of the car and started to pray. Because of the delay Noreng missed his flight, writes VG.

“I was absolutely gob-smacked. It was like a movie. The driver suddenly pulls over onto the shoulder of the road near Jessheim, opens up the trunk, takes out his prayer rug and puts on his prayer hat. He then rolls out the rug in front of the car and starts to pray. The prayer break lasted for ten minutes,” says Øystein Noreng to VG.

The driver, however, has a different version of events.

“I did my duty as a Muslim to Allah. The passenger informed me that he had to be dropped off at the airport before 0720. I told him that he could get another taxi, as I had to pray before sunrise and that sunrise would occur before we arrived at Gardermoen. I told him that I was going to make it before 0720. He was happy with that. We arrived at the airport at 0711.”

The prayer took no more than four or five minutes, says the taxi driver.

Noreng chose to pay for the trip when they arrived at the airport and ran into at the terminal. At the check in gate he was informed that check-in had closed two minutes ago.

“I was flying business class and was put on a later flight, but I had to fly via Istanbul. I was originally scheduled to arrive at 2300, but instead I arrived at 5 o’clock in the morning,” says Noreng.

The owner of the taxi told VG that this was the second time that this has happened with this particular driver and that the driver is no longer working for him anymore. He is still working for Oslo Taxi, but for a different taxi owner.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

10 thoughts on “The Taxi Jihad

  1. @Findalis but if he do so, the media would call him a racist or worse because he doesn’t treat the driver in the way it is used to. His behaviour “only differs” because it’s a Muslim driver.

  2. Transportation was the service being provided.
    There was no guarantee that it would get the man to his destination on time.
    So the driver was entitled to payment.
    Still, this incident needs to be phoned in to the management of the cab company.
    It needs correction from the top down.

    • No guarantee — but what about a good-faith effort? On what grounds could the driver force the passenger to make an unnecessary delay? On what grounds could the driver force the passenger to donate his own time to an activity of the driver’s choosing unrelated to the task for which he was hired?

      • The issue is not on what grounds could the driver compel the passenger to be late to his plane.
        It’s happened. The driver did do this, and he did so on the basis that the holiness of his religion (which he subscribes to and I do not) was greater than any need of his customer.
        If this is the driver’s attitude, then he should not have the job. Unless he wants to transport only other Muslims. In which case there should be a Muslim-only cab company serving only the Muslim community.
        If anti-discrimination is the gospel of the day, and means accommodation of Islam, well, let the absurdity begin and become more manifest.
        Then, after non-Muslims and ethnic have lived with it long enough, they’ll finally resist the Ummah instead of bowing down to their false god– their arrogance.
        The practice of Islam penetrates every area of life. This is why Muslims are unfit for work and life in the West.
        Long ago, we renounced propitiary magic and superstition.
        To allow Muslims to immigrate here is to allow these things to become part of the culture again.

    • “So the driver was entitled to payment.”

      The driver was not entitled to anything. It is a contractual arrangement, not a human rights issue. A taxi driver can’t just interrupt a passenger because he is hungry and decides to stop and leave you in the taxi while he grabs a meal. This pathetic, spineless professor clearly won’t stand up for anything.

      I have walked away from paying taxis because the driver went through 2 red lights, thus jeopardising my safety. I have walked away from 5* hotels without paying, because they put me in rooms with so much noise I could not sleep. I have refused to pay lawyers when they have provided an incompetent service. Let them take you to court for the money.

  3. If 10 extra minutes made the professor miss his flight, then he was already late.

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