Posted on 04/27/2007 10:30:23 PM PDT by jdm
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.
This is too much...
The formatting made an extra line space between 1 & 2.... AAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! :O) Why does that happen?!
Gee, I sure hope no one urinates or defecates into these holy prayer basins by mistake. That would be just terrible.
It does not have to be Police Cappin' Jim.
As an individual who travels through MCI regularly,
I’m sick at heart to hear of this travesty!
LOL
I saw a muslim woman doing this at a public drinking fountain. I assumed she was just being crass and using her hand to drink. But now I'm wondering if she spit the water back into the drinking fountain. This is definitely a health concern.
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.
Sheesh! These people are more neurotic than lab rats in a defunded crack study.
"On answering the call of nature"
Mentioning the name of Allah before entering the toilet or taking off one’s clothes will prevent the jinn from seeing a person in a state of undress or harming him. The Prophet (peace and blessings of be upon him) says: “To put a barrier that will prevent the jinn from seeing the `awrah of the sons of Adam, let any one of you say ‘Bismillah’ when entering the toilet.”
Flock of sheep;
Herd of goats;
Bevy of burkas;
Murder of Muslims;
Pack of idiots.
Especially after eating a pound of bacon!!
I wouldn’t like it but could see the point if they were doing this to accomodate having thousands of Muslim passengers a day or if they had hundereds of muslim employees....
But doing it for cab drivers???? People that don’t add any revenue to airport operations, just outsiders that happen to bring people to and fro??? Give me an everloving break.
Who is paying for this travesty. Local taxpayers? Something added to ticket prices for all passengers flying into or out of there? DOT/FAA/Homeland Security??.
Hey, my religion requires that I rub the stomach of a hundred pound pure gold statue of a pagan god a thousand times a day. I’ll be flying into Kansas City next week. They’d better have my golden idol ready for rubbing when I pass through
No Christmas trees at SeaTac, but we have to install religious basins to cater to the OCD muzzie minority? For crying out loud.
Bring baggies of pork fat to empty in their foot washing basins.
Well, all things being equal, I’d rather they weren’t washing their feet in the hand basin.
And I suppose some tired traveller can wash his feet just because they’re sweaty and swollen, so the foot basins aren’t quite purely religious.
But if y’all start contaminating them, they’ll be washing their feet in the hand basin again, or demanding separate facilities with a key or guard.
Of course, I wish they were all back in their homelands were such accomdations no doubt already exist.
Once they’re all washed, where in the airport do they bow down and pray?
Mrs VS
Even in Saudi Arabia they don’t have footbaths in the airports. This is the same as the polio drops and the ham sandwich brouhaha. These scumbags are either preemptively appeasing (liberals) or reaching for power and influence way beyond the scope of what the average Muslim wants.(Islamofascists)
From someone who lives within fifteen minutes of MCI, I’m sicker than you are.
...or a ham sandwich!!!
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