| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Airport adds foot basins for Muslim cabbies |
| 2007-05-01 |
| Police worry about Kansas City 'catering' to Islamic rituals The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned. The move concerns airport police who worry about Middle Eastern men loitering inside the building. After 9/11, the airport beefed up its police force to help prevent terrorist attacks. "Why are we constructing places of worship for them inside our airports?" said an airport official who requested anonymity. "Why are we catering to their rituals? We don't do it for any other religion." Other major airports also are dealing with increased demands from Muslim cabdrivers. For instance, cabbies at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recently caused a stir when they refused to carry passengers possessing alcoholic beverages or accompanied by seeing-eye dogs. Alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and dogs are considered unclean. There are approximately 250 taxicab drivers operating at KCI Airport in Missouri, one of the largest airports in the U.S., linking some 10 million passengers between mid-America and other U.S. cities. Approximately 70 percent of the drivers are of Middle Eastern heritage and practice the Islamic faith, sources say. KCI Airport Police are responsible for the cab drivers, including the holding areas of the building. The KCI Aviation Department, which oversees the police, recently expanded the taxicab facility restroom area to include the construction of four individual foot-washing benches. The cost of the project is not immediately known. A spokeswoman for the engineering department said she could not break out the figures. KCI Airport Police Capt. Jim Harmon declined comment, explaining, "This is a touchy subject." He referred questions to the KCI Aviation Department. In a cleansing ritual known as ablution, Muslims are required to wash their feet before praying to Allah five times a day. They often complain that public restroom sinks do not accommodate their needs. Floor-level basins make it easier for them to perform their foot-washing ritual. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has pressed government agencies and businesses to install the foot basins in restrooms. The controversial Muslim lobby group advises employers to allow Muslim workers time to perform both the washing ritual and prayer, which "is usually about 15 minutes," according to a pamphlet CAIR publishes called, "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices." The Islamic purification ritual, known in Arabic as "wudu," involves a 10-step process, which includes: 1. Praising Allah while washing both hands up to the wrist three times, making sure that the water reaches between fingers and under rings. 2. Rinsing out the mouth thoroughly three times, using the right hand (the one not used for cleaning private parts) to bring the water to the mouth. 3. Snorting water into the nostrils from the right hand, three times, to cleanse them of demons that Muslims believe reside there, clearing the passages of any mucous using the left hand. 4. Washing off the tip of the nose with the left hand. 5. Washing the entire face three times from right ear to left ear. 6. Continuing to wash from forehead to throat. 7. Washing the right arm and then the left arm, three times, from the wrist up to the elbow, removing watches. 8. Moving wetted palms over the head from the top of the forehead to the back of the head. 9. Passing the wetted tips of the fingers into the grooves and holes of both ears, and also passing the wetted thumbs behind the ears and ear lobes. 10. Finally, washing both feet to the ankles starting with the right foot, including between the toes, then reciting: "Ash-hadu an la ilaha illal lahu wa ashhadu anna Muammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh" – meaning there is no god but Allah and he has no partners, and Muhammad is his servant and messenger. |
| Posted by:Clineger Theck8297 |
| #14 Where the hell's the ACLU? Separation of Church and State. This is nothing less than State Sponsored religion. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-05-01 21:05 |
| #13 Since you probably cannot smoke in a public building, any bets on how many chewers there are out there? And those big ol' bowls look to me like drive-by spitoons....... |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2007-05-01 20:52 |
| #12 If I find one I will piss in it. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-05-01 20:41 |
| #11 Given all the different sorts of toilets around the world (from holes in the ground to ???) aren't they worried that some foreigner might mistake them for toilets and leave an offering [to Allah]? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-05-01 19:00 |
| #10 CAIR probably threatened them with a $500 million lawsuit if they didn't put them in. It was prolly cheaper and safer to just cave in to the water snorting lunatics. |
| Posted by: Grusotle Peacock3899 2007-05-01 18:45 |
| #9 Wanna cleanse those nostrils of demons? Try bleach next time... |
| Posted by: Dar 2007-05-01 18:41 |
| #8 KC: The Bar-B-Que Capital of the world! "Arthur Bryant's BBQ", "Gates BBQ", "The Hereford House", "The Golden Ox"...I salivate at the mere thought of these exquisite eateries. I fear the heathens will soon start denouncing my BBQ ribs! |
| Posted by: borgboy 2007-05-01 18:31 |
| #7 You've gotta be shitting me. Minneapolis is one thing, but now Kansas City. I go through there often. I'm going to make certain to have several beers prior so that I can take a good healthy piss in their cistern. This is beyond belief. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970 2007-05-01 18:23 |
| #6 Further, the thought of having some dope hog the restroom sink, clearing mucus out of his nose and chanting some pagan gibbersih is really offensive to me. If there are three of them, no one else is going to be able to use the sinks. |
| Posted by: KBK 2007-05-01 17:54 |
| #5 Here is the text of a message I sent to Kansas City International Airport: To Whom: Your installation of foot washing facilities for Muslim cab drivers demonstrates preferential treatment based upon religious orientation. I sincerely doubt you provide lunar calendars for Chinese travelers or indicators for when the first star appears on the Sabbath for Jews. By appeasing these Muslim cabbies you have set a precedent whereby they will continue to make even more demands upon the system. Have you not learned any lessons from the Minneapolis cabbie disputes? Next, you will be ordered to provide Halal foods in your vending machines and, eventually, Islamic calls to prayer over your intercoms. What you have done is an affront to the constitutional rights of all American people. By showing deference to one religious group you have used government funds to violate the separation of church and state. I hope you are confronted with numerous and extremely expensive law suits for your craven acquiescence to these religious fanatics. And fanatics they are. There is absolutely no dire need for them to perform their ablutions at the airport. Islam gives specific dispensation for individuals who are unable to do so due to circumstances beyond their control. Those who desire to perform such rituals may do so at the mosque of their choice. By obliging the demands of these aggressive Muslims, you now create even more pretense for them to be on airport premises. These are the same people who brought about the 9-11 atrocity and you are absolute fools if you have managed to forget this. You are voluntarily creating a security breach and opening yourself to liability should one of the cabbies decide to launch a terrorist attack on your facility. I sincerely hope you will reconsider this ill-advised program of religious favoritism. You are embodying the very worst sort of appeasement for the world's most intolerant religion. Their contact URL is: http://www.flykci.com/ContactUs/ContactUsForm/Index.htm |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-01 17:53 |
| #4 Where's the ACLU on this? ... crickets ... |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-05-01 17:48 |
| #3 The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned. This is an outrage. If the cabbies want to pray with all the needed ablutions, GO TO A FUCKING MOSQUE! The airport is not a religious structure. If needed, we should rip out every non-denominational chapel in every airport across this entire country to prevent any more of this bullshit. THIS IS GOVERNMENT MONEY BEING SPENT TO APPEASE ONE PARTICULAR GROUP OF RELIGIOUS WHINERS! Even very intelligent people should be adequately nonplussed by these new facilities such that they confuse them with urinals or emergency toilets if all the stalls are full. Incidentally, are these same foot washing basins being installed in all of the women's restrooms as well? I sincerely doubt it and this represents sexist preferential treatment. This shit has gotta stop! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-01 17:21 |
| #2 1. If Muslims need to perform this ritual then they should have the foresight to bring a basin. 2. As a secularist, I cannot help but look at practices such as Snorting water into the nostrils from the right hand, three times, to cleanse them of demons that Muslims believe reside there, clearing the passages of any mucous using the left hand. and think how ludicrous mankind's religion-based practices are. Islam conflicts with reason more often than other faiths, but to some degree they are all guilty. |
| Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2007-05-01 17:19 |
| #1 Sorry i thougth you said that KC Airport added some urinals? Can't wait to have my first layover. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-05-01 17:19 |