Posted on 05/02/2007 2:04:12 AM PDT by Man50D
Kansas City International Airport officials have acknowledged installing foot-washing benches in a restroom at the airport, but deny they're intended for Muslim cab drivers.
WND over the weekend reported that KCI Airport recently constructed four foot-washing benches to accommodate a growing number of Muslim drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer.
"Recently, a small expansion was made to the building," said Kansas City Aviation Department spokesman Joe McBride in a statement to WND. "Included were wash areas used for any wash purpose by any of the users, including filling car wash buckets."
He insisted the wash benches were not "built for the exclusive use of any ethnic group or culture."
However, the department director in an earlier statement to WND appeared to contradict that claim.
"The majority of our drivers are Muslim, so preventing them from praying at all was not an option, especially in our public terminal restrooms," said Mark VanLoh, director of the Kansas City Aviation Department. "This was the best solution, and those facilities were added without public money."
He added that cab drivers paid for construction through a one-dollar per-trip fee.
In October 2005, the KCI Airport Police first solicited advice from other law enforcement regarding "wash bench facilities for those of Islamic faith," according to internal e-mails obtained by WND. In one e-mail sent to members of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, or ALEAN, KCI Airport Police brass asked, "If you do have such an area, do you refer to this location as a place for those of Islamic faith to [go to] prepare themselves for worship?"
The KCI Airport Police are responsible for the taxicab drivers and the building they use at the airport to wait on fares. The building contains the restroom with the four new foot-washing benches.
One airport official told WND the police are concerned about "catering" to Islamic rituals at the airport, particularly after the 9/11 hijackings and the more recent transatlantic sky terror plot. Airports have been operating under heightened security. The KCI Airport Police force, in fact, was beefed up after 9/11 to help prevent Islamic terrorism.
Islamic suicide attackers go through a ritual called ablution, or bodily cleansing, before carrying out their martyrdom operations. The 9/11 hijackers performed this ritual before entering airport terminals.
McBride suggested to a Kansas City TV news station, KMBC-TV (Channel 9), that it was, as the station put it, a "myth" that the airport installed foot-washing benches for Islamic taxi drivers. "It's a case of mistaken information on the Internet," McBride is quoted as saying.
However, a Savage radio listener yesterday offered photos he says he took of the benches on Monday in the taxicab facility restroom located in the middle of the airport under the control tower.
The photos clearly show four individual wash benches across from knee-high faucets and hand rails. Drains are visible in the floor.
In one corner of the room stands a rolled-up prayer rug. Smaller rugs can be seen lying on a cart behind it.
"There are foot bathes [sic] in the cabbie way station," asserted Phillip Morgan of Kansas City in an e-mail. Morgan went on to say he planned to lodge a complaint with the mayor's office.
Some 250 taxicab drivers operate 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. One internal KCI Airport Police email said "approximately 70% of the drivers are [of] Middle Eastern heritage and practice the Islamic faith."
Muslims are required to wash their feet and other body parts before praying to Allah five times a day. They often complain that public restroom sinks do not accommodate their needs. Floor-level basins and benches make it easier for them to perform their foot-washing ritual.
Muslim taxi drivers at KCI Airport pooh-poohed concerns about the wash benches, arguing they are not just for their use.
"The guys [sic] making a big issue out of it – it's not just for Muslims," said taxi driver Shareif El-Mahdi in an interview with KMBC-TV.
Other major airports have dealt with increased demands from Muslim cab drivers. Cabbies at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, for instance, 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.
“approximately 70% of the drivers are [of] Middle Eastern heritage and practice the Islamic faith.”
Here’s one case where I’d rather have a profession dominated by illegal Mexicans.
“”Included were wash areas used for any wash purpose by any of the users”
Can somebody use them to rinse the excess salt off of a Virginia ham?
FWIW, I'm not sure that analogy holds, though.
That said, though, these things better be available for use by all, women included.
And note to the airport people: STOP LYING.
We better start fighting this slow encroachment of Islam into our culture. Every day , little by little they are trying to make this an Islamic country ..They ARE getting away with it because of our PC politicians and brain dead general public. This is only the beginning folks. Look at England and Shria Law
Airports accept Federal funds, if this were Christians the ACLU would be all over it.
The mussie’s take their little rugs to Tysons Mall and go to the children’s play area and pray in front of 30-40 children. And all the guards do is watch.
Anyone have an email addy for this airport of officials involved. Time that AMERICANS protest the movement of Islam into the public sector.
Radical Islam is an insane murder cult.
Moderate Islam is its Trojan Horse in the West.
“I think there are moderate Muslims, they are even the large majority, but I do not believe there is a moderate Islam,”
Philippe de Villiers, head of the anti-immigrant Movement for France (MPF) party
Which was surely voluntary... and riders were fully apprised of what the funds were going towards?
Right?
Right.
“Muslims are required to wash their feet and other body parts before praying to Allah five times a day.”
“However, a Savage radio listener yesterday offered photos he says he took of the benches on Monday in the taxicab facility restroom located in the middle of the airport under the control tower.”
Why would you build a taxicab facility under the control tower?
I agree with you there. That said, so...? I just don't have a problem with this. Muslim cabbies stiffing folks with dogs and/or booze in a queue, Heck yes, I have a problem with that. But not this. And just because the ACLU's ready to stick it to people of Christian faith doesn't mean I'm going to turn around and return the favor to someone else of a different faith.
And besides, I'm a big believer in cleanliness being next to Godliness :)
There going to claim they are holy ground and that infidels desecrate them....just watch it won't be a "tolerant' public facility .
Now here's a blatant lie... That $1 fee per trip applies to every cab, not just those driven by muslims, and is an access fee to allow cabs to pick up customers at the airport. Because this is NOT a voluntary fee, it immediately becomes money taken into government coffers. So it's the city of Kansas City (through the aviation department) that actually paid for these things.
Will someone please tell me what might happen if government money was used to pay for some sort of Judeo-Christian religious device, not just a symbol...
Mark
I am a big believer in the law should be equally applied to all.
‘All the more so when you realize it’s just about their money.’
I’m all in favour of these sharia compliant govt. bonds for muslims like the one just introduced by the Bank of England. I far prefer muslims to give their money to the British govt. than to the govt. of some terrorist supporting muslim country. . . . .
If that happens, then they'll be shooting themselves in the feet, pardon the pun.
Every airport I’ve ever been through has a chapel...
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