Posted on 02/13/2008 4:42:27 AM PST by fweingart
There's an uproar in the U.K. over recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury that, given the country's growing and restive Muslim population, it is "unavoidable" that certain aspects of Islamic law would, at some point, have to be accepted in Britain.
What many Americans do not realize is that there's a concerted effort by some in the American Muslim community to move slowly in a similar direction right here in the United States.
While this effort is not necessarily about Sharia law, it is an attempt by some Muslim Americans to force the rest of us to enable their cultural and religious practices in the public sphere. Instead, they should be assimilating and abiding by general U.S. norms.
One of the front lines of this fight: footbaths.
Growing numbers of Muslims living in the United States are seeking to wash their feet in the sinks of public rest rooms. The foot-washing is part of wudu, the ritual ablutions a Muslim performs before the five prayer sessions he or she observes every day at intervals from morning till night. The ablutions can take several minutes and involve repeated washing or rinsing of the hands, mouth, nostrils, face, arms, forehead, hair, ears and, finally, the feet.
There is nothing wrong with a devout Muslim seeing it as his religious duty to wash his feet. I take no issue with the practice whatsoever.
But I do not accept the notion that large, primarily secular institutions - or society as a whole - should invest time and money building facilities expressly to make it easy for people to perform the ritual.
Yet that is precisely what is happening. Not surprisingly, it is universities - bastions of open-ended tolerance - that are on the leading edge of the trend. Last year, it was reported that the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where more than 10% of students are Muslim, announced it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in a number of rest rooms.
In contemplating this, the school was following in the footsteps of other institutions including Stanford University, the University of Houston, Boston University, St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Indeed, right here in New York, NYU is considering installing footbaths in the Islamic section of its planned interfaith center.
Somehow, the American Civil Liberties Union - normally given to howls of execration at the mere thought of a creche in any semipublic place at Christmastime - is not challenging any of this. Why? Because, it says, it's not a matter of religion but of "cleanliness and safety." Foot-washing in regular sinks can be a messy business. It can also be off-putting for non-Muslims who must use the sinks and rest rooms for ordinary purposes.
But the question of whether footbaths improve cleanliness and safety is beside the point. What is at issue is the extent of public accommodation of religion. And furthermore, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations is specifically recommending that Muslims perform their ablutions in rest room sinks, it turns out that elaborate foot-washing at every prayer time isn't even required under Muslim law.
Indeed, a perusal of Islamic Web sites reveals some flexibility regarding the washing - for example, simply wiping over the sock is sufficient, rather than soaking the bare foot.
But this seems not to matter to those who want to thrust Islamic practices into the public sphere or to the politically correct officials who refuse to draw the line.
Foot-washing done in public places, whether in sinks or footbaths, sets Muslims apart from larger society. Rather than facilitating that, we should ask members of the American Muslim community to adapt their behavior to the country in which they live.
“Muslims make up around 1% of our population. Why is it this nation is so interested in catering to the vast minorities”?
No... I am saying the ACLU is not being hypocritical at all. The ACLU is simply acting the way it always acts with regards to Christians, because it is an anti-Christian organization.
Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?
My objection was to the mockery of what a religion considers as sacred - along with pointing out that the deed being mocked was practiced by Christ who the majority of Americans recognize as Lord and Savior.
footbaths? I thought they were a litter box for my pet pig.
Your right ........ me!! :o) (incidently, I'm always armed, sooooo bring it on)
That may be YOUR claim, but show me where the ACLU states that position.
I can start with the fact that the ACLU was founded by communists, who are anti-Christian.
But look at who whines the most about any display of Christianity in public? It is always the ACLU. Any time a town wants to put up a manger in public the ACLU is the first to whine, even if other religions get to put up their own religious displays in public. Why does the ACLU believe that Christians should be treated as second class citizens in that we cannot put up a religious display in public but other religions can?
Let's look at another related issue. Any time someone whines about the 10 Commandments being displayed in a courthouse, even though they do not compel anyone to believe, and even though they are the basis for all of our own secular law, the ACLU is the first to whine. We've seen this happen all over the country. What more proof do you need?
Hey yeah, that’ll work!
Get the muzzies howling when they see their precious footbaths have been obviously used as urinals!
Let the silent urinary protest begin across the land!
;^)
Everything you write about proves that the ACLU is hypocritical by not consistently following its stated position.
True... but I base the ACLU's position on what they actually do, not what they say they do. I guess we could agree that they are liars, not hypocrites.
The left is interested in promoting anything non-”white western culture”, and interesting in destroying anything of our culture.
“You just know someone is going to pee in it”
I think I remember a story where someone did at an airport.
“If Muslim footbaths start making inroads, so too will people be carrying around these to sprinkle in them:”
Now THAT’S a creative idea.
Why do you think Jesus practiced the muslim’s style of washing? He lived a long time before Mohammed and Isaac and Ishmael separated their ways a long time before Israel, Isaac’s son started the Israelis.
They do look like a new type of urinal.
“The ablutions can take several minutes and involve repeated washing or rinsing of the hands, mouth, nostrils, face, arms, forehead, hair, ears and, finally, the feet.”
All that...and they still haven’t figured out toilet paper? Seems a bit fishy, to me.
Accommodation, appeasement and apology have become the hallmarks of the DhimmiLib crowd when dealing with anything muzzie. Foot baths are just a symptom. The problem is the crazed muzzies, themselves. Brainwashed into blind submission to a pedophile prophet given to spouting (and later revising) ‘divine’ visions. Subjugated to the seventh century mindset maintained by morally bankrupt imams and clerics with nothing new to offer the world in the last 1400 years. Commanded by their playbook, the quran, to Conver the infidel, Enslave the infidel, or Kill the infidel.
Foot bath? Use the toilet. It’s closer to the floor, and the water flow is better. Get over it. If you don’t like it, perhaps you’d be better accommodated in a country that represents your views and beliefs more closely.
The thing I remember is that these posters were stuck to walls with a glue that was practically inpenetrable. You could see where people (presumably University custodians) had tried mightily to scrape them off, to almost no avail. The were still legible. All Hail Enver Hoxha, Mighty Leader Of A New Albania!
I was just thinking, what if little stickers, using that glue as adhesive, could be made, but of that "bomb-head Muhammad" from the Jyllands-Posten incident. They could come to good use where these "foot baths" are located.
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