Thread: Activists urge Shiite Muslims to embrace American citizenshi

Activists urge Shiite Muslims to embrace American citizenship

Posted 1h 46m ago
By Rachel Zoll, The Associated Press

DEARBORN, Michigan — Sayyid Haider Bahar al-Uloom paces before his students seated in two neat rows — men in one, women in the other. They meet each week in a small but growing office in an old storefront downtown, its shelves lined with Arabic texts on Islamic jurisprudence.
Tonight's lesson is on justice, but Bahar al-Uloom's lecture ranges wide of Muslim teaching. He cites The Federalist Papers, slavery in U.S. history and spirituality in The Audacity of Hope. A 37-year-old Iraqi Shiite, he consumes books on American culture and religion, analyzing the work of mega-pastors Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and others, to learn their appeal.

"We should not fear introducing people to other ideas," says Bahar al-Uloom, whose title sayyid is for those who trace their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad.

On this night in Michigan, he ends his lecture with the same message he brings to Shiite groups around the country: Your ideals, rooted in Islam, are not alien here.

"We call them Islamic values, but they are universal values," he says in near accentless English. "If it's a principle or act that would help all Americans, all I need to do is speak it in a language that is universal."


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Shiites comprise less than 15% of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and an even smaller percentage of the Muslims in the U.S. Within the wider Muslim world, they are often persecuted for their beliefs and way of worship.

Islamic law governs even the smallest issues for devout Shiites. Can they wear cologne? Listen to popular music? Sit at a table where alcohol is served? New interpretations are needed for life in non-Muslim countries.

Pious Shiites have seen threats to their faith from the permissive American way of life and what for many is their first experience of a non-Muslim government. Worried that voting or other civic involvement would violate Islamic law, many have opted instead to turn inward, focusing on preserving their traditions.

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But the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes, the war in Iraq and other world events have prompted some significant changes in the U.S. Shiite community in recent years. Shiite clerics and activists are pushing community members beyond the protective walls they built, encouraging them to fully embrace their American citizenship.

At the forefront of the effort is the nonprofit that Bahar al-Uloom helps represent, called I.M.A.M., which tells Shiites they can vote, participate in the 2010 U.S. Census and hold public office without abandoning their faith.

"In the United States, the law here is not against Islam," said Sheik Mohammed el-Ali al-Halabi, a Syrian who came to the U.S. a decade ago, sitting in his bare-bones office at I.M.A.M. "I can be a good Muslim and a good American."

Half a world away from Dearborn lies the inspiration for this drive, an unexpected source for dramatic change: an elderly holy man who rarely leaves his home in the old quarter of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf and who will probably never visit the United States.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani isn't widely known in the U.S. outside public policy circles, but he should be. He is one of the most revered thinkers in global Shiism, a moderate in outlook and a powerful force in Iraq. His behind-the-scenes interventions were key to guiding the country's fledgling democracy.

The grand ayatollah and his advisers lead lives dedicated to religious tradition, but they are also pioneers in using the Web to reach the globally dispersed faithful. They teach that good Muslims must be active citizens of whatever country they call home.

As Shiites emigrate around the world, al-Sistani sends his representatives along to guide them on how to remain devout in a foreign culture.

I.M.A.M., the Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya, is the liaison office in America for al-Sistani.

The organization's lecturers and scholars crisscross the country to support fledgling Shiite institutions. Al-Sistani is far from the only marja, or top-level religious authority, with American followers, but he is one of the most prominent, and through the Dearborn office, he is helping shape American Shiism.

"It's kind of a status symbol that you are recognized and trusted by the office of the ayatollah," said Liyakat Takim, author of Shi'ism in America, and professor at McMaster University in Canada. "It builds your credibility."

I.M.A.M. opened a year ago under the leadership of Sayyid Mohammad Baqir Kashmiri, a cleric who works in Dearborn and Los Angeles on behalf of al-Sistani and his advisers.

The Dearborn area has the biggest concentration of Shiites in the United States. The city is home to the headquarters of Ford Motor Co., which started attracting Arab and Muslim immigrants in the early 1900s with above-average assembly line wages. Now, the city bordering Detroit is filled with mosques, Islamic schools, Lebanese restaurants and food markets that follow Islamic dietary laws.

Inside I.M.A.M., poster-size photos of al-Sistani and his late mentor, Ayatollah Sayyid Abdul-Qasim al-Khoei, hang above the office reception desk. It is one of the rare portraits that the reclusive al-Sistani ever allowed of himself, as he, like many of the Dearborn staff and volunteers, consider it a sign of humility to avoid photographs of themselves.

Bahar al-Uloom, I.M.A.M.'s vice chairman, graduated from Dearborn's public high school and Wayne State University, but his seminary education has been by correspondence with scholars from Najaf, Iraq, and Qom, Iran — prominent centers of Shiite learning. For years, teachers mailed him sackfuls of cassette recordings of their lectures, which he would play in his car as he drove the streets around Dearborn.

He and his cousin, Sayyid Hassan al-Hakim, a 26-year-old graduate student in public administration, often arrive early in the morning to study before the deluge of calls and e-mails with questions about Islamic law and requests for help. Staff cellphones buzz all day with questions sent by text.

"How far off can u be from the Qibla?" reads a query on al-Hakim's cellphone, about facing in the proper direction, toward Mecca, for prayer.

Volunteers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, share computers crammed into a small room off the library. Among them are the editors and designers of I.M.A.M.'s glossy educational magazine, Reflections. They have a policy of publishing in English, except for religious references that require Arabic, to reach a younger generation of American Muslims, along with non-Muslims.

"Muslims should be essential participants in their respective societies while maintaining the beauty of Islam as their code of conduct," reads a recent article titled Being American and Being Muslim. Al-Sistani "is known to have repeatedly called for integration with preservation of identity," the author writes.

The same article indirectly addresses the threat of extremism, condemning "so-called 'Muslims' who endanger innocent lives." The author urges Muslims and non-Muslims to report any potential threats to civil authorities and "hold fast to the principles of Islam and protect those around them."

In the spirit of the Najaf scholars, and their embrace of new technology and thinking, I.M.A.M. uses contemporary management tools to aid its cause.

Bahar al-Uloom quotes from the corporate success book Good to Great. Al-Hakim collects evaluation forms for feedback on programming. The office uses customer service software to monitor response time for calls to 1-888-SISTANI, the toll-free line.

In side rooms, al-Halabi and other clerics offer counseling on personal and religious issues. Sayyid Mehdi al-Ameen, a resident scholar at I.M.A.M., had been a judge in a religious court in Lebanon, hearing cases on divorce, child custody and other issues. Three days a week he teaches a class on ethics and another on the Quran, and provides marriage counseling.

Down a winding staircase into the basement is the organization's video production arm, AscentTV.net. It was created by Aous Asfar, a veteran branding executive, and targets young people under age 35. The shows are in English and include lectures on Islamic teaching, the importance of interfaith relations, and discussion of workplace and family issues.

An underlying theme of the shows is that observant Shiites can find ways to fit into Western society. On a program for young professionals, Wissam Bazzi, a 34-year-old who works at AscentTV, holds out his right arm to show how men can create a personal safe zone — two or three arm lengths — to avoid being drawn into a handshake or hug with a female co-worker.

"They don't have to feel like outsiders," says Asfar, a Canadian of Iraqi descent.

The call to prayer sounds at midday. Staff members assemble in a corner of the library with their prayer mats directed toward Mecca.

Houda Fawaz, a 26-year-old project manager for AscentTV, was working at a bank when she thought "there had to be something more," and began volunteering with the video unit.

She now does editing and post-production work for a women's show called Sister to Sister and is planning a new career in media.

Fawaz, who wears a scarf that covers her hair and neck, said she hopes the show reaches non-Muslims as well so they can learn how Western Muslim women think and move beyond stereotypes — or what she calls "the whole 'women are oppressed' issue."

"I've always wanted a job where I felt I was helping other people," said Fawaz, the college-educated daughter of Lebanese immigrants. "With communications, you can touch so many people at one time."

The office is open at least 10 hours a day but often far longer. On a recent evening, two young women without appointments dropped in after 9 p.m. seeking help with family troubles. One woman was upset that her father opposed her decision to become a psychologist. He didn't think she'd earn enough. The second woman said her mother objected to the man she loved because he had not earned a bachelor's degree. Bahar al-Uloom agreed to talk with the parents.

I.M.A.M. takes its responsibilities to the Shiite community far beyond Dearborn. The group recently organized a meeting of the Council of Shia Muslim Scholars in North America, a panel revived by lead cleric Kashmiri. The theme of the event, citizenship and integration, was written in Arabic and English on a banner across a photo of the U.S. Capitol.

More than 40 turbaned clerics gathered for two days in the conference room of an Atlanta airport hotel, drawing surprised stares from other guests. Along with the Muslim scholars, I.M.A.M. invited two Roman Catholic academics to explain how Catholic immigrants overcame the hatred that greeted them in a once overwhelmingly Protestant United States.

The Muslim clerics discussed the challenges they face urging their communities to, as one participant said, "come out of their boxes."

No one is sure how effective I.M.A.M. can be.

Like American Sunnis, Shiites are divided by ethnicity, language and culture. Often, I.M.A.M. is viewed in the Dearborn community as a mostly Iraqi or Lebanese organization, even though the group works with Iranians, South Asians, African-Americans and others.

Then there are those Muslims who seem beyond reach: the notable number of Shiites who have become so Americanized that they no longer practice their faith.

The staff at I.M.A.M. acknowledge all the challenges to their mission, but they find encouragement in the Shiite history of struggle and survival, and the success of other U.S. immigrant groups before them. With a growing number of American-born Shiites, just blending in with the larger Muslim community or hiding away in enclaves is no longer an option, they say.

"Sayyid Sistani emphasizes that you are in this country," Bahar al-Uloom says. "You are citizens here."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2 ... ican_N.htm

Islamic jurisprudence, HUH? Sharia law has done wonders for Britain.

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The Islamic States of America?

by Daniel Pipes

FrontPageMagazine.com

September 23, 2004

http://www.danielpipes.org/2100/the-isl ... of-america

The hardest thing for Westerners to understand is not that a war with militant Islam is underway but that the nature of the enemy's ultimate goal. That goal is to apply the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) globally. In U.S. terms, it intends to replace the Constitution with the Qur'an.

This aspiration is so remote and far-fetched to many non-Muslims, it elicits more guffaws than apprehension. Of course, that used to be the same reaction in Europe, and now it's become widely accepted that, in Bernard Lewis' words, "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century."

Because of the American skepticism about Islamist goals, I postponed publishing an article on this subject until immediately after 9/11, when I expected receptivity to the subject would be greater (it was published in November 2001 as "The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America"). I argued there that

The Muslim population in this country is not like any other group, for it includes within it a substantial body of people—many times more numerous than the agents of Osama bin Ladin—who share with the suicide hijackers a hatred of the United States and the desire, ultimately, to transform it into a nation living under the strictures of militant Islam.

The receptivity indeed was greater, but still the idea of an Islamist takeover remains unrecognized in establishment circles – the U.S. government, the old media, the universities, the mainline churches.

Therefore, reading "A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America," in the Chicago Tribune on Sept. 19 caused me to startle. It's a long analysis that draws on an exclusive interview with Ahmed Elkadi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader in the United States during 1984-94, plus other interviews and documentation. In it, the authors (Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Sam Roe, and Laurie Cohen) warily but emphatically acknowledge the Islamists' goal of turning the United States into an Islamic state.

Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day. But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well. …

Brotherhood members emphasize that they follow the laws of the nations in which they operate. They stress that they do not believe in overthrowing the U.S. government, but rather that they want as many people as possible to convert to Islam so that one day—perhaps generations from now—a majority of Americans will support a society governed by Islamic law.

This Brotherhood approach is in keeping with my observation that the greater Islamist threat to the West is not violence – flattening buildings, bombing railroad stations and nightclubs, seizing theaters and schools – but the peaceful, legal growth of power through education, the law, the media, and the political system.

The Tribune article explains how, when recruiting new members, the organization does not reveal its identity but invites candidates to small prayer meetings where the prayer leaders focus on the primary goal of the Brotherhood, namely "setting up the rule of God upon the Earth" (i.e., achieving Islamic hegemony). Elkadi describes the organization's strategic, long-term approach: "First you change the person, then the family, then the community, then the nation."

His wife Iman is no less explicit; all who are associated with the Brotherhood, she says, have the same goal, which is "to educate everyone about Islam and to follow the teachings of Islam with the hope of establishing an Islamic state."

In addition to Elkadi, the article features information from Mustafa Saied (about whose Muslim Brotherhood experiences the Wall Street Journal devoted a feature story in December 2003, without mentioning the organization's Islamist goals). Saied, the Tribune informs us, says

he found out that the U.S. Brotherhood had a plan for achieving Islamic rule in America: It would convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office. "They're very smart. Everyone else is gullible," Saied says. "If the Brotherhood puts up somebody for an election, Muslims would vote for him not knowing he was with the Brotherhood."

Citing documents and interviews, the Tribune team notes that the secretive Brotherhood, in an effort to acquire more influence, went above ground in Illinois in 1993, incorporating itself as the Muslim American Society. The MAS, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. and claiming 53 chapters across the United States engages in a number of activities. These include summer camps, a large annual conference, websites, and the Islamic American University, a mainly correspondence school in suburban Detroit that trains teachers and imams.

Of course, the MAS denies any intent to take over the country. One of its top officials, Shaker Elsayed, insists that

MAS does not believe in creating an Islamic state in America but supports the establishment of Islamic governments in Muslim lands. The group's goal in the United States, he says, "is to serve and develop the Muslim community and help Muslims to be the best citizens they can be of this country." That includes preserving the Muslim identity, particularly among youths.

Notwithstanding this denial, the Tribune finds MAS goals to be clear enough:

Part of the Chicago chapter's Web site is devoted to teens. It includes reading materials that say Muslims have a duty to help form Islamic governments worldwide and should be prepared to take up arms to do so. One passage states that "until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful." Another one says that Western secularism and materialism are evil and that Muslims should "pursue this evil force to its own lands" and "invade its Western heartland." [links added by me, DP]

In suburban Rosemont, Ill., several thousand people attended MAS' annual conference in 2002 at the village's convention center. One speaker said, "We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state" in America, but it would have to wait because of the modest Muslim population. "We mustn't cross hurdles we can't jump yet."

These revelations are particularly striking, coming as they do just days after a Washington Post article titled "In Search Of Friends Among The Foes," which reports how some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials believe the Muslim Brotherhood's influence "offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists." Graham Fuller is quoted saying that "It is the preeminent movement in the Muslim world. It's something we can work with." Demonizing the Brotherhood, he warns, "would be foolhardy in the extreme." Other analysts, such as Reuel Gerecht, Edward Djerejian, and Leslie Campbell, are quoted as being in agreement with this outlook.

But it is a deeply wrong and dangerous approach. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood is not specifically associated with violence in the United States (as it has been in other countries, including Egypt and Syria), it is deeply hostile to the United States and must be treated as one vital component of the enemy's assault force.

_________

Sep. 26, 2004 update: In a verbose and technical response to the Chicago Tribune article cited above, Esam Omeish, the president of the Muslim American Society, acknowledges that MAS has been influenced by the "moderate school of thought prevalent in the Muslim Brotherhood" and makes no effort to refute the article's premise that MAS has in mind "the goal of an Islamic state." How odd.

May 25, 2005 update: For more on this subject, see my weblog entry, "The Muslim Brotherhood's American Goals."

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http://www.danielpipes.org/2100/the-isl ... of-america

Psalm 91





Psalm 91

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Some say schools giving Muslims special treatment


By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

Some public schools and universities are granting Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms and ritual foot baths, prompting a debate on whether Islam is being given preferential treatment over other religions.
The University of Michigan at Dearborn is planning to build foot baths for Muslim students who wash their feet before prayer. An elementary school in San Diego created an extra recess period for Muslim pupils to pray.

At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Muslim students using a "meditation space" laid out Muslim prayer rugs and separated men and women in accordance with their Islamic beliefs.

Critics see a double standard and an organized attempt to push public conformance with Islamic law.

"What (school officials) are doing … is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now," says Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, an advocacy group for Christians.

Advocates say the accommodations are legal.

"The whole issue is to provide for a religious foundation for those who are observant while respecting separation of church and state," says Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles. Many schools accommodate the Christian and Jewish sabbaths and allow Jewish students to not take tests on religious holidays, he says.

Barry Lynn, of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, says however that the law is murky on these expressions of faith. And the American Civil Liberties Union says overt religious symbols like crucifixes are not legal, but whether Muslim foot baths and prayer rugs fall into that category is not clear.

"That's a difficult one, and it's right on the edge," says Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU program on freedom of religion and belief in Washington, D.C.

At the forefront of the movement is the Muslim Students' Association, which has formed a Muslim Accommodations Task Force to push for foot baths and prayer rooms. At least 17 universities have foot baths built or under construction, including Boston University, George Washington University and Temple University, and at least nine universities have prayer rooms for "Muslim students only," including Stanford, Emory and the University of Virginia, according to the MSA's website. The association did not return calls seeking comment.

Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which promotes separation of mosque and state, says he is concerned about the accommodations. "Unusual accommodations for one faith at the cost of everybody else doesn't fall on the side of pluralism," he said.

At George Mason University, non-Muslim students were asked to observe Muslim rules in the prayer area, such as keeping men on one side and women on the other and removing their shoes, according to Broadside, the school newspaper. Alissa Karton, assistant to the vice president for student life, said the article prompted the school to order students to roll up prayer rugs when not in use and move the dividers.

The University of Michigan agreed to install foot baths after talks with the MSA, said Terry Gallagher, director of public relations at the campus. Some Muslims ritually wash their feet before praying five times a day.

Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank, sees the requests as part of a movement to force the public to acquiesce to Islamic law.

"The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic law," Pipes says.

In the San Diego case, a substitute teacher at Carver Elementary School alleged that teachers were indoctrinating students into Islam. The San Diego Unified School District determined that a teacher's aide was wrong to lead Muslim students in prayer. Carver still has a special recess to allow 100 Muslim students to pray.

The ACLU, which has often sued schools for permitting prayer, says it is waiting to see what kind of policy the school settles on before deciding whether to sue. It says promoting prayers is unconstitutional.

"If you start carving out time in the school day that you would not do but for the need to let students pray, then it begins to look like what you're trying to do is to assist religion," says David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU in San Diego.

Thompson says such conflicts are bound to proliferate. He and other Christians, he says, are preparing to ask for equal consideration such as a Christian prayer recess.

"What you're going to see out there is more of these kinds of cases as the Muslim community tests how far it can go in the public school system," he says. "If this can happen for Muslims, it can happen for Christians and other religions."

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... ools_N.htm

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1347/exc ... footbaths/

Psalm 91

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HOMELAND INSECURITY

Muslim footbaths spark another fight

Indianapolis pastor warns trend is first step in Islamic goal of imposing Sharia law in U.S.

Posted: October 02, 2007

1:00 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh

WorldNetDaily.com



Indianapolis airport officials have announced plans to add footbaths for Muslims who wish to wash before their five-times-daily prayer rituals, and that's just too much for one pastor, who has called for residents to organize and protest.

The issue has been appearing in more and more airports and other public facilities in recent weeks, where Muslim immigrants are a growing segment of cab drivers, who spend hours waiting on arriving passengers for their fares.


Prayer rugs at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, where officials boasted of having provided the customer service feature of footwashing benches for Muslims
Several years ago, officials with Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix boasted of a new "customer service," providing footwashing facilities for Muslims.

"The cab drivers were asking for more washroom facilities as a group, and a majority of them wanted some place to wash before they pray," Deborah Ostreicher, public information officer, told the Arizona Republic. "This is a way we thought we could reach out as a customer service."

Similar facilities have been built at Kansas City International, although airport officials repeatedly have insisted the washing facilities are for anyone aided by the presence of seating and low faucets.

One editorial writer called it "creeping dhimmitude," where America is joining the "global community of nations dominated by Islam," and now Rev. Jerry Hillenburg, pastor at Hope Baptist Church in Indianapolis, says he's going to be working to halt such changes at the city's airport.

He's announced a rally Saturday at 11 a.m. to oppose the tax-funded footwashing sinks for Muslims at the airport.


"How do you eat an elephant?" Hillenburg asked during an interview with WND. "One bite at a time. And this is just the first bite of the elephant, a step towards Islam's desired goal, which is to thrust the entire world under one single Islamic caliphate under sharia law."

He told the Indianapolis newspaper that such actions reflect a "fraternization" with enemies during a time of war, and he's calling on Mayor Bart Peterson to halt the installation of the facilities.

His sermon in response to the situation was titled "Stop Caving in to Islam," and Hillenberg said it's unreasonable to use such public facilities for the support of a single religion.

Airport officials, faced with the sudden publicity and demands from the public, admitted their plans to build facilities on airport property to accommodate the prayer needs of Muslims are not final. But they were planned as part of restrooms in a new airport terminal that is due for completion next year.

"We're really a long way from having this set in stone," said Airport Authority spokesman David Dawson.

He told the newspaper that comments from members of the public will have an effect on the final plans for the property, which is owned by the Airport Authority, a public entity.

Shariq A. Siddiqui, executive director of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana, said the real issue is that American Muslims face intolerance every day.

"The problem I have with him is that he associates Muslims with the enemy," Siddiqui said. "For him to demonize all of us is the problem."

Hillenburg told the mayor that putting sinks on public property that would primarily serve Muslims could be unconstitutional. That move, Hillenburg said, simply is an "appeasement" of Muslims.

While the airport has an interfaith chapel, Hillenburg said he would be surprised if the authority would allow the installation of a baptistry or basins for holy water.

"I don't hate Muslims. I don't hate people who follow Islam," he said. "But I am at odds with anyone who threatens America and its citizenry; and I am at odds with anyone, period, who wants to destroy Christianity."

The ACLU has not opposed the installation of the religion-specific facilities in other locations. When the University of Michigan installed footbaths in campus restrooms, it concluded that the university's reason was for "practical cleanliness and safety."

"They won't let us (Christians) have the Ten Commandments, Merry Christmas or children praying at a school convocation," Hillenburg told WND. "We've had the Establishment Clause shoved down our throats for the last 40 years."

"[This situation] boils down to the appeasement of Islam at the cost of oppression to Christianity," he said. "We have lived with the Supreme Court's separation of church and state for years. We've had Christmas trees banned, Nativity scenes taken down, in the state General Assembly in Indiana a federal judge ruled it is unconstitutional to have a Christian prayer."

Russ Richards, who works in the transportation industry at Sky Harbor in Phoenix, said he's documented similar facilities that have been on the airport property for several years already.

"In the airport's cab lot (C-lot) they not only have footbaths but also a covered designated prayer area with 'misters,' benches, and prayer rugs," he said. "If people other than Muslims go into the area, they are 'swooped' on by Islamic followers as to the intent of any non-Muslim."

He told WND the facility essentially is a mosque on public property for the benefit of Muslims. "It's their space. They mark it with their rugs."

The earlier report in the Arizona Republic said it might be the first such facility in the nation.

Abdul Malik Omar, who owns Metro Transportation, a limousine company on Phoenix, said observers sometimes can see 30 or 40 people praying together in open space. He said even more accommodations should be added, including a permanent place to pray.

Robert Spencer, who founded Jidah Watch, compared installing a footbath for a Muslim to putting in a holy water font to accommodate Catholics.

"The only conceivable group that will use the footbath are Muslims for prayer," he said. "It's a religious installation for a religious use."


Foot-washing benches at a taxicab facility at Kansas City airport (photo: Phillip Morgan)
WND earlier reported on the situation at Kansas City International Airport, where officials completed the installation and then announced the washing areas could be used for any number of purposes.

"Many of us believe that had this request come from, say, a majority of Catholic cab drivers who requested holy water founts or to have a Ten Commandments plaque installed in airport public facilities, even at their own expense, there would have been a severe outcry from the PC (politically correct) bully pulpit about 'separation of church and state' and in the name of 'religious tolerance,'" said Missy Holthoefer, a longtime KCI user.

"When will the PC bureaucrats get a real clue from history and religious studies that appeasement is the worst way to counter the growing threat from Islamic radicals? To the PC crowd: 'Muslim appeasement' [equals] 'showing weakness and thus vulnerability,'" she said.

One official at KCI even apparently tried intimidation in an effort to eliminate discussion about the recently installed footbaths, after repeated denials that they are intended for Muslims to perform their ritual.

"That's the way I perceived it," Kevin Peterson told WND in a telephone interview.

Peterson said he shares his name with a union steward for the Air Traffic Controllers Union at Kansas City's airport, but he is not the same individual. He was sent an e-mail from airport spokesman Joe McBride, who assumed he was writing to the union steward. about the issue.

"The Indianapolis Star reports that the Indianapolis Airport is installing Muslim foot-washing basins in an upcoming renovation," Peterson wrote. "The paper says that Muslim footwashing basis are already installed at KCI.

"Are you planning to issue a denial as to the purpose of the KCI basins to the Indianapolis Star?" he asked.

"I assume you are the Kevin Peterson who is the union steward for the air traffic controllers union," the e-mail, signed electronically with McBride's name, said.

"Point number one on the first e-mail suggests that your [sic] are in the control tower near the cab facility. I read your previous e-mail on this topic. Your stance is not in the best interest of the airport and the federal government, your employer," the e-mail said.

Peterson, however, said McBride had called later to apologize for the tone of his note.

"My opinion is that the decision makers at KCI were hiding behind Mr. McBride," Peterson said.

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http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57935

Psalm 91