Islamic foot wash stations inside restrooms for the airport\u2019s international terminal serve a \u201cpractical need\u201d for travelers, Whitmire said in a statement. Abbott, meanwhile, has criticized such facilities as \u201cspecial treatment\u201d for Muslims, threatening to revoke state funds from airports in Houston and Dallas over the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ablution room and adjoining prayer room are open to all travelers, employees and stakeholders with access to Terminal D, regardless of faith,\u201d Whitmire said. \u201cNobody receives preferential access, and nobody is excluded.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Houston Airport System, which runs Bush and Hobby Airport and is overseen by officials appointed by Whitmire, paid for the ablution facilities with fees charged to the international airlines rather than public funds from the city or state, the mayor said.<\/p>\n
Whitmire\u2019s statement also notes that roughly one-fifth of all passengers in the airport\u2019s international terminal departed on Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, airlines that serve Muslim-majority countries. Ablution facilities are preferable to having residents resort to using sinks for washing needs, Whitmire added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The governor took aim at Houston\u2019s largest airport on Friday, referring IAH as well as Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport to the U.S. Department of Transportation for investigation, the latest in state Republicans\u2019 efforts to target what they cast as Sharia law and an \u201cIslamic takeover\u201d of Texas. The stations amount to religious discrimination because the airports do not offer standalone facilities for other faiths, Abbott alleged.<\/p>\n
Officials at DFW said they were scrapping plans for new footwashing stations amid \u201celevated public interest\u201d this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Houston\u2019s airport has had an ablution station connected to its Interfaith Chapel since 2024, installed under former Mayor Sylvester Turner. The facilities are used by Muslims who wash their bodies before prayer five times a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islamic foot wash stations inside restrooms for the airport\u2019s international terminal serve a \u201cpractical need\u201d for travelers, Whitmire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-409630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}