Where faith and work collide

Hogan said the refusals had become "a significant customer service issue." Drivers may legally refuse to carry passengers who appear drunk or dangerous, but otherwise may not pick and choose. Under current policy, drivers who refuse a fare are sent to the back of the taxi line, where they may wait hours for another passenger. Much tougher penalties will be up for a vote next month. Drivers would be suspended for 30 days for a first offense and would lose their airport license for two years for a second offense.

Spokesmen for two national Muslim organizations said they had not seen similar conflicts anywhere else. The refusal to transport alcohol (and to scan pork products) appears limited to Somalian immigrants in the Twin Cities.

Their strict interpretation of the Koran does not have universal support among local Muslims.

"It has taken us years to develop relationships with mainstream groups and employers. This concerns me a lot. All the goodwill can be wiped out," said Saeed Fahia, who runs the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota.

He and other immigrant advocates fear that the drivers and cashiers have been manipulated by religious extremists trying to spark a confrontation.

"It becomes us versus them, Muslim versus American," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul.

E-mails to local newspapers suggest that such divisions are hardening. Although some urge tolerance and accommodation, others express deep resentment.

"Why do we have to adapt to them, they came to OUR country," read one of the hundreds of comments posted online in a forum sponsored by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"[Do] I have to hide my Star of David necklace to get service ... do I have to wear a burka?" another asked.

Assessing the clash from afar, David W. Miller, author of the book "God at Work," said he saw it as a case of recent immigrants "struggling to learn what it is to live in a country that lives by civil law, not [Islamic] law."

Miller, executive director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University, said that when the Somalis took their jobs, they knew what they would be required to do: Scan every item in a grocery cart; drive every passenger who needs a ride. If they can't do the work, he said, they should look elsewhere.

"Chances are," Miller said, "the laws of this country will trump their religious tradition."

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stephanie.simon@latimes.com

Times researcher Lynn Marshall in Seattle contributed to this report.