Texas Governor Floats Prosecution Of Airports Over Muslim Foot-Washing Fountains

Authored by Jeremy Lott via The Epoch Times,

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, made his second push in two weeks to halt the Muslim foot washing facilities at his state’s airports on Friday.

“DFW [Dallas Fort Worth International Airport] stopped plans to install additional Islamic wudu washing facilities after I threatened to withhold state grants to entities operating these airports,” Abbott wrote in an Aug. 21 X post.

The governor also wants DFW to remove two foot washing stations in one interfaith chapel, and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport to remove its more extensive foot washing facilities.

Abbott wrote that he had “referred both government-owned airports to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation and enforcement” and added: “If the existing facilities are on city owned property, Texas will pursue litigation for religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded facilities.”

DFW Says Stations Stay

A DFW spokesperson told The Epoch Times last week that it “accelerated its review due to elevated public interest” and “determined not to proceed.”

The airport’s response to the governor’s second demand was different. DFW sent a same-day letter that it shared with The Epoch Times laying out why it will not be removing anything.

In the letter, signed by DFW CEO Chris McLaughlin, DFW said it had shelved plans for a larger foot washing facility while at the same time “respectfully disagree[ing] that the installation of the stations would discriminate against any religious view in violation of law.”

The proposal for a larger prayer washing room grew out of an “observed health and safety concern,” which DFW said it had the “legal authority to address.”

Observant Muslims pray at five distinct times in a day, and some amount of body washing is typically required to cleanse them for those prayers.

The faithful have to get that water from somewhere. DFW wrote that its staff “observed an increasing number of individuals using bathroom sinks to wash feet.” This created a “potential slip and fall hazard because the bathroom sinks are not designed for this purpose.”

Regarding the existing small washing stations located in the interfaith chapel on Concourse D, for international flights, DFW wrote that those stations are “open and available to all.”

Whether or not to use them is a “private choice,” and any visitor to the airport may make use of them for “either a secular or religious purpose.”

Because all can access the foot washing stations, “there is no unfair treatment,” DFW wrote. It added that no federal or state grant funds were used to install the foot fountains.

Houston Mayor Weighs In

The Houston airport shared a lengthy statement by Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, with The Epoch Times.

“The ablution room at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) was developed and approved by the previous administration of Mayor Sylvester Turner,” Whitmire said, and it started operating during his own administration in 2024.

The expansion that the washing room was part of “was paid for by fees charged to the international airlines,” Whitmire said, and taxpayer funds from city, state, or federal sources were not used.

He also made the case for its inclusiveness, saying that the washing room and the “adjoining prayer room are open to all travelers, employees and stakeholders with access to Terminal D, regardless of faith.”

The Houston airport has interfaith chapels and, taken together, “these facilities serve travelers of all faiths and beliefs,” he said.

“Therefore, their operations do not entail any discriminatory actions,” Whitmire said.

The Houston mayor said that before the facilities were provided, passengers often used sinks in the airport’s bathrooms for foot washing.

Neither the mayor nor the Houston airport have indicated that there is any plan to remove the facilities in response to the Texas governor’s statements.

Muslims and the First Amendment

Reactions to the controversy have been varied. The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a statement to The Epoch Times calling it an “anti-Muslim political stunt” on the governor’s part and thanking the Houston mayor for “debunking” some of Abbott’s claims.

Justin Butterfield, director of litigation at the Heritage Foundation, suggested that this controversy is not happening in a vacuum.

“There are two principles at play,” Butterfield told The Epoch Times. “Government should accommodate religion robustly but shouldn’t grant coercive power to one faith to invidiously discriminate against all others.”

Apart from the specifics of this case, Butterfield said that the governor is “rightly concerned about the risk of a group demanding more than accommodation by declaring public spaces theirs and coercing others to comply with their religious beliefs.”

Butterfield gave the example of a mosque in the Dallas metro area that “sued preachers and their church for handing out Christian literature on a public sidewalk near the mosque” last December. The case was eventually thrown out on First Amendment grounds.

Texas has a sizable Muslim population, with more than 310,000 Muslims living in the state. In raw numbers, that puts it behind New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey, but ahead of Michigan.

The total Muslim population of the United States currently clocks in at just under 4.5 million, according to World Population Review figures.