Ablution is a ritual washing commonly performed before the five daily prayers of Islam.
The practice involves washing or wiping eight parts of the body — hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, head, ears, feet — in a prescribed sequence.
It’s the feet that have caused a stir in Texas.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW) put forth a proposal for additional foot-washing stations inside Terminal D restrooms.
The proposal became controversial after details of a Texas regulatory filing circulated publicly.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (pictured in AP photo left) objected, arguing that dedicated facilities for Muslims could amount to government favoring one religion over others. He asked the federal government to review religious accommodations at DFW and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and said Texas would review state grants to the airports.
DFW officials have since cancelled the project, saying an expedited project review because of the public controversy and concluded that the project did not provide enough of the anticipated operational benefits to proceed.
“This is another phase of the ongoing culture war that it needs to be fought, and it will be fought by right-minded people," Chris Ekstrom, a board member for U.S. Term Limits and former Texas congressional candidate, said on American Family Radio Monday.
"Christians certainly come to the fore on this issue, because we know publicly witnessing our faith has been heavily discouraged by pretty much all Democrats at this point,” Ekstrom stated.
Abbott wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asking the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to review religious facilities and accommodations at both airports.
DFW currently has two foot-washing stations and IAH has one.
"These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal," Abbott said in a statement. "Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others."
Ekstrom says Democrats are less bothered by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment when Islam is concerned.
The Establishment Clause is intended to prevent the government from establishing or officially favoring a religion. It is the constitutional foundation for what Americans commonly call “separation of church and state.”
Democrats “look completely the other way in order to not see the crime going down with the Islamic faction out there, and it almost encouraged them in this. Somebody, somewhere, some faceless, nameless bureaucrat dreamed this up,” Ekstrom told show host Jenna Ellis.
Abbott deserves credit for a “pro-active” measure that derailed additional foot-washing stations, Ekstrom said.
A foot-washing station in a busy airport may seem harmless but when considered with rising concerns over Sharia Law in the U.S. — Texas U.S. House Republican Keith Self calls Sharia an ‘existential threat’ — or calls to prayer echoing in U.S. cities, a larger culture war picture emerges.
The thwarted plan for additional foot-washing stations in DFW is no problem for many Islamists, Ekstrom contends.
The news coverage brought about is more valuable than strategically placed water spigots.
“People who are openly practicing Islamic, so-called religion, is that they are doing it in public all the time. They want to do it in public, and they want to be seen. They want to run into controversy, because it serves their purpose, and their purpose is expansion. Their purpose is to bring more of their co-religionists into our country,” Ekstrom said.
