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.
I’d love to catch one of them washing his feet in a public restroom and dump pig blood into the basin.....
Or bring a little bottle of bacon grease from home to annoint them with...
Footbaths? I was using those to wash the dog poop off of my genuine pigleather footBALL.
let’em use the bidet, or better yet, the WC.
The cleaning is Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder institutionalized.
If they fart or have impure thoughts during it, they have to begin all over again.
How do we get it through to the Dhimmilibs that they also would be subject to the Convert/Enslave/Kill triad if they get their way.
Jesus taught foot washing in order that his Disciples might learn Humility; there is nothing Humble in this Religion! Their philosophy is "Convert or Die"! No comparison!
Because the real enemy of the left is Christianity not religion per se. The left ultimately fights what is good.
I am aware that the people of Jesus’ time washed their feet (and there are references to the cleaning of other peoples’ feet).
Did they actually perform the Islamic wudu ritual on themselves and start over when they farted?
That is exactly what I would do if I saw one.
It’s not a matter of what a business does to accommodate its patrons. If it were, I would agree with you. When tax dollars are used to fund many of these Muslim footbaths, such as in universities and airports, it becomes preferential treatment of one religion.
This whole idea of needing foot baths in public places is absolutely brand new. Even in their own homes, Muslims preparing to pray do not bother to take a bath each time, and you do not see even 1% of Muslims praying five times a day ANYWHERE in the world. It’s simply not do-able, except in the most extreme Muslim totalitarian states, such as Iran used to be, where there was severe punishment for failing to stop every activity 5 times a day. (Don’t know if it still is.) Demanding special baths is a ploy to force the dhimmis to “feel themselves subdued.”
The common practice is to have a fountain outside a mosque, or sometimes showers inside mosques, where Muslims who gather to pray together can bathe. I have NEVER before heard of needing them in a secular location.
What is hypocritical of the ACLU is, they don't outwardly claim to be anti-Christian. They claim to be protecting the rights of all, but in effect, their actions only support selective groups.
Footbaths? I just thought they were funny looking urinals.
Waterboarding?
Just sayin’
The ACLU is rabidly and fanatically anti-Christian. They are well known and consistant bigots and anyone who does not know this is blind.
You could grab a lib by the back of the neck and rub his nose in the reality of what we face,
and he’d still blame the “white male” for causing the problem.
Alot of truth in that observation.
Lock and Load. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid.
>What is hypocritical of the ACLU is, they don’t outwardly claim to be anti-Christian. They claim to be protecting the rights of all, but in effect, their actions only support selective groups.
I completely agree with that viewpoint.
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