'Muslim Taxi' Lets German Muslims Ride In Separate Cars For Men And Women
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Getting around can be a difficult situation when you're Muslim, thanks to rules that dictate that men and women ride separately.
However, Selim Reid, a 24-year-old German man whose parents hail from Iraq, thinks he has a solution that will help fellow Muslims get where they need to go without violating the tenets of their faith.
It's called Muslim Taxi and is an Islamic car pool that enables would-be passengers to arrange shared car rides. Those who are willing to drive specify on the company's website their gender, asking price and how many passengers they can accommodate and potential passengers contact the driver directly, according to TheLocal.de.
Reid, who lives in Norderstedt, a city of about 70,000 near Hamburg, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that he was inspired to create the site because of Muslims bad ride-sharing experiences, such as the time in 1996 when his parents caught a ride with a Muslim-hating driver who spent the whole time criticizing them.
"The driver and the people with him swore the whole way about foreigners in general and in particular about my mother's head scarf," Reid told the newspaper.
Reid's "Muslim Taxi" service comes at a time when Germans have been debating how much integration is expected of its immigrants, according to OnIslam.net.
On the surface, the idea of Muslim Taxi sounds like a separatist form of transportation, but Reid insists he hopes non-Muslims also use the service.
"Those really looking for dialogue will find it by using Muslim Taxi," he said.
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HuffPost Weird News David Moye First Posted: 02/ 2/2012 7:59 am Updated: 02/ 2/2012 8:00 am