Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has scrapped a proposal to add Islamic foot-washing stations to two Terminal D restrooms, backing off Friday night after Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the plan illegal and opened a review of every state grant flowing to the airport.
“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit governments from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.”
In a separate letter to DFW CEO Christopher McLaughlin, Abbott warned that organizations found to have developed or operated what he called exclusionary religious spaces could lose state grant funding and face further enforcement.
Abbott referred both DFW and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to the U.S. Department of Transportation for investigation and enforcement, asking the department and the Federal Aviation Administration to review religious facilities and accommodations at each. He also directed a review of all state grants to the entities operating the two airports for possible revocation and denial of future funding. Abbott’s office said IAH already operates an ablution facility with an adjoining prayer room.
“Texas will not allow illegal religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded facilities,” Abbott wrote on X.
DFW told Fox News Digital on Friday that it had been weighing an internal proposal to add ablution stations on the pre-security side of Terminal D, its international terminal, and that it weighs operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving any project.
“While that evaluation was planned, the airport accelerated its review due to elevated public interest this week and has determined not to proceed with the project as it would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits,” the airport said.
The airport did not spell out what those benefits were. Defenders of the proposal, including conservative activist Ryan Fournier, had argued the low-level basins were a maintenance measure — travelers performing wudu in standard countertop sinks soak restroom floors and damage counters. Wudu is the ritual washing Muslims perform before prayer, covering the hands, face, arms, head and feet.
DFW has offered an ablution station on the post-security side of Terminal D for years. Two were added to the terminal’s Interfaith Chapel during upgrades completed in 2019, alongside shoe storage, kneelers and expanded shelving for holy texts. Similar basins exist at other large U.S. hubs, including Chicago O’Hare.
The project was registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on July 31. The filing listed it as privately funded, put the cost at $300,000 and said construction would be finished by year’s end.
DFW said those details reflected administrative errors by its outside design firm and stressed that the project had never received final approval. A spokesperson said the $300,000 was a preliminary high estimate and that the actual cost, had the project gone forward, would have run closer to $120,000. The Dallas Express reported Friday that the filing had since been revised to $115,000 and reclassified.
“That was an error and it should have indicated that airport funds would be used to pay for the work like all our projects,” the airport said, adding that it does not use taxpayer dollars for operations and instead relies on revenue from parking and concessions.
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