Governor Abbott Drops the Hammer: Texas Airports’ Special Muslim Footbaths “Illegal,” State Funding Now on the Chopping Block

For years, Geller Report has been reporting on Muslim footbaths in public.  But it is the first time a Governor, or any elected official of note, has taken a stand on it.

Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others.

DFW plans to install Islamic wudu washing facilities are illegal. I’ve directed a review of all state grants to both airports for possible revocation, and referred DFW & IAH to USDOT for investigation.

Texas… pic.twitter.com/XY58WAKJ8N

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 14, 2026

No other religious group is accommodated in this way.

There is no God-given right to enter another country and remake its public life around the demands of any religion. Freedom of religion means the freedom to worship. It does not mean a right to compel everyone else—or the taxpayer—to accommodate every religious practice, custom, or mandate.

The hypocrisy is staggering. Christians have been arrested in Saudi Arabia for worshipping behind closed doors, in their own homes, because the religious police considered even private Christian observance intolerable. Yet in the West, governments and institutions are endlessly pressured to bend, accommodate and spend in the name of Islamic religious requirements.

Enough.

American taxpayers are under no obligation to finance religious infrastructure for anybody. Mosques and Islamic institutions have received enormous financial support from wealthy patrons and governments abroad for decades. They hardly need the American taxpayer picking up the tab.

And these concessions are not  politically meaningless. Accommodation after accommodation can create an expectation that institutions will simply yield whenever a religious demand is made. What officials congratulate themselves for as “tolerance” can become a precedent for the next demand, and then the next.

That is precisely why the line must be drawn at equal treatment.

One law. One standard. No special privileges.

Religious liberty protects Muslims exactly as it protects Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists and everyone else. But religious liberty is not religious supremacy. It does not entitle any faith to public money, preferential hiring, special government deals, exemptions unavailable to others, or the transformation of public institutions around its religious requirements.

Nor should practices that violate legitimate neutral laws suddenly become untouchable merely because somebody declares them religious. If slaughtering an animal in a public street violates sanitation, animal-welfare or public-safety laws, then enforce those laws. “It is part of my religion” cannot be a magic phrase that places conduct beyond the reach of civil authority.

The West’s greatest mistake has been confusing surrender with tolerance.

Every sweetheart land deal, every misuse of public funds, every government employee who abuses public office to advance a religious agenda, every attempt to manipulate hiring or public policy for sectarian purposes should be exposed and stopped—not because the religion involved is Islam, but because government belongs to all citizens.

This is how a free society survives: not by persecuting believers and not by privileging them, but by refusing to surrender the civic square to any religious movement.

Freedom of religion, yes.

Government submission to religion, never.

Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others.

DFW plans to install Islamic wudu washing facilities are illegal. I’ve directed a review of all state grants to both airports for possible revocation, and referred DFW & IAH to USDOT for investigation.

Texas… pic.twitter.com/XY58WAKJ8N

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 14, 2026

Islamic Foot-Washing Stations Planned for Dallas Airport

The project is meant to prevent Muslim travelers from washing their feet in public sinks before prayer.

by Hunter Burney Texas Scorecard, August 13, 2026

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is planning to install Islamic foot-washing stations in two bathrooms by the end of the year. The project “aims to prevent water on standard restroom floors and protect sink counters,” per local reporting.

White House correspondent Natalie Winters drew attention to the $300,000, privately funded project in a post on X this past Wednesday.

The project is titled “DFW – Wudu – Ablution stations – Terminal D” on the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project details page. The page states that “ablution [washing] stations” will be installed in both the men’s and women’s restrooms in Terminal D, and is expected to begin at the end of August.

Wudu is the ritual washing and purification of the body before Muslim acts of worship. The feet are generally the last part to be washed.

According to Fox News, the project is meant to prevent water from accumulating on bathroom floors and counters when travelers wash their feet in the public sinks.

Conservative activist Ryan Fournier commented on the project, stating that “people washing their feet in standard bathroom sinks creates soaked, slippery floors and breaks the counters. Low-level wudu basins keep the restrooms dry and safe for everyone.”

Many commenters on Winters’ original post expressed different sentiments.

“Dedicated Islamic ablution stations signal that American norms take a back seat. Americans don’t want the third world in our airports,” said one commenter.

Another commented, “Who ok’d this? … How often are these foot baths cleaned? Ick.”

The Dallas Mayor’s office, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and DFW airport have not responded to a request for clarity regarding the motivation behind the washing stations.

Muslims make up approximately 1-2 percent of the population of Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas, while Christians represent about 65 percent of the population for both the metroplex and state.

While DFW Airport hosts five interfaith chapels, there are no Christian-specific worship spaces. Kira Davis described her experience at two of the chapels in April. “They were essentially mini-mosques, labeled as ‘interfaith’ chapels.”

Davis stated that the first chapel she visited “included a lot of Islamic imagery and two large cabinets jammed with Islamic prayer rugs,” but “no crosses. Not a single one.”

The second chapel had “some Bibles tucked on shelves, but prayer rugs were everywhere, including hanging on the racks on the wall. A sign encouraged the faithful to ‘look up’ to find Mecca – a compass was painted on the ceiling,” according to Davis. Muslims are generally required to face Mecca when praying.

“Islam and Christianity are not allies,” stated Davis. “We have no business worshipping in the same space, and in fact, cannot. The Muslims there knew it. I knew it. Airport planners don’t care or perhaps they know it too.”

“Go find your airport chapel and claim it. Pray there. Leave a cross and a Bible and a note. Do not cede this ground. Do not cede any ground.”

Source: https://gellerreport.com/2026/08/governor-abbott-no-muslim-footbaths.html/