The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport scrapped plans Friday to add additional Islamic foot-washing stations after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to cancel state airport grants, claiming the stations are religious discrimination.
Abbott also asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate DFW and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Both airports already have existing ablutions stations, which are typically used by Muslims to clean their feet before prayer.
"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 press release. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination."
Abbott's move comes after news of the proposed ablution station sparked backlash online, reflecting the growing hostility toward Muslim communities across the state that includes protests over proposed mosques and outrage over a Muslim-focused community development in North Texas.
Sameeha Rizvi, government affairs and legislative manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Texas chapter, told KERA making an accommodation for Muslims shouldn't be considered discriminatory.
"It could be argued that it would religious discrimination to remove such an accommodation," Rizvi said.
She also said the lack of access has led some Muslim travelers without options to use sinks to wash their feet, which isn't ideal.
"Not only is it an uncomfortable act to lift your whole foot up and stick it in a sink that other people use to wash their hands, but also, for people that aren't Muslim, it's confusing," Rizvi said.
The airport told KERA in a statement Monday the additional ablution stations were an internal proposal and about to go through an evaluation process.
"While that evaluation was planned, the airport accelerated its review due to elevated public interest and has determined not to proceed with the project as it would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits," the statement read.
DFW has already had ablution stations in its international terminal's interfaith chapel since 2019.
Abbott's letter notifies the airports that any "continued operation of such exclusionary religious spaces" violates state and federal law and state grant agreements.
When asked whether existing ablution stations would be impacted, a DFW spokesperson said there were "no additional plans" at the time.
KERA has reached out to George Bush Intercontinental for comment and will update this story with any response.
An ablution station allows people of the Muslim faith to perform ritual washing of feet, face and hands before praying. The existing ablution room connects directly to the prayer room at the interfaith chapel.
A filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on July 31 stated a contractor would install two new ablution stations by the end of the year for $300,000 and the project would be privately funded.
A spokesperson for the airport told KERA the project was merely an internal proposal and hadn't been approved. The spokesperson also said the filing contained mistakes. The cost would be closer to $120,000 and use airport-generated funds instead of private money.
The airport generates its own funds through concessions, parking and airline landing fees.
But news of the filing spread rapidly on social media two weeks later, with many conservative accounts criticizing the airport.
Republican Texas Sen. Tan Parker of Flower Mound, who chairs the state Senate Committee on Transportation and whose district includes a part of the airport, sent a letter to the airport’s board of directors on Aug. 14 questioning the process of how the stations were approved.
"Unacceptable. Illegal," Parker wrote on social media. "This project should be immediately scrapped."
In a statement, CAIR-Texas called the controversy a political stunt and accused the state's Republicans of hypocrisy.
"Of all the manufactured controversies surrounding Texas Muslims, this DFW Airport washing station debate may be the most ridiculous," the statement read. "Unlike forcing biblical readings on public school students and hanging the Ten Commandments in every Texas classroom, the additional washing station at DFW Airport would be a universally-accessible and perfectly legal amenity that would benefit any and all travelers, not just one faith group. It's no different than the interfaith prayer rooms found at many airports."
Dylan Duke is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan at dduke@kera.org.
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