Actually, not THAT kind of holy water font, the Islamic foot-washing kind. I’ve been seeing bits and pieces about this all summer long, but I guess everyone is too busy playing outside and surfing the web looking for Hollywood skanklet pics. It just doesn’t seem to be generating any big deal. Is anyone paying attention here, or doesn’t anyone get vocal until they try to take the Christmas trees out of some public place, or tell everyone to say “happy middle to the end of December gift buying season” instead of Merry Christmas? Accommodating a specific religion’s prayer requirements in the construction of a public building using taxpayer money goes a bit beyond the “free exercise” clause doesn’t it? How long before we have Muslim only swimming? Or separate entrances for believers and infidels? From the Washington Times yesterday, this appears to me to be quite a different thing than a donated tree in a public place.
DEARBORN, Mich. — Plans to construct two foot-washing stations continue at the University of Michigan at Dearborn amid concerns that such action would constitute an establishment of religion by the public university.
The 8,700-student school near Detroit, which begins fall classes Tuesday, came under criticism in June when it announced that it would spend about $25,000 on the two foot-washing areas that were requested as an accommodation by a Muslim Student Association’s task force. The foot baths come while the state is in a budget crisis and tuition and fees have risen at all of the state’s public universities, up 7.9 percent at the Dearborn campus alone.
Data from a study of entering freshmen suggest that about 10 percent of students at the university are Muslim, and many have in the past used bathroom sinks for the foot washing, called an ablution, which Islam requires as a purity ritual before its five-times-daily prayers.
I’m at a loss as to how this gets past the “separation of Church and State” crowd and the ACLU (no I’m not). But can you just imagine the anxiety attacks that would happen if some college wanted to install the holy water font in the picture, in order to accomidate the religious desires of the Catholic students? Heck, I bet they could get a copy of the Bible for every student in the place who required on, and for much less than $25,000.
.. The new foot-washing stations, built at ground level, are part of a renovation project at two locations on campus and will be paid for with money from the school’s general fund.
The foot baths, while benefiting Muslim students, are open for use by all students and will be located in two new unisex bathrooms that will be renovated on campus.
Oh, that’s alright then… we’re accommodating the ever increasing population of unisex students as well.
..Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician who serves as chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said he is surprised there has not been more outrage.
“Supreme Court cases have been heard on far less-obvious violations of our Establishment Clause,” Dr. Jasser said. “Many if not most American Muslims are currently well able to accommodate our own prayers and ablution to the spaces and facilities provided to all other faiths on public grounds without special accommodations. Islamists use the ‘free exercise’ clause when it suits them and then turn around and use tax monies in the name of Islam when it suits them.”
Dr. Jasser said the foot bath marks the start down “a slippery slope of preferential treatment of one religion over another,” which he said is what the First Amendment was established to prevent.
Speaking of the ACLU, how about a little quote from an article on the Michigan ACLU’s website, written last December during the “war on Christmas” dust-up
..The United States does the best job in the world of protecting religion. Religion thrives in the American public sphere: Religious leaders preach on television and radio; religious books and magazines are a multibillion-dollar business; we have churches, synagogues and mosques of every kind.
That we do not have religious wars says something significant about the extent of our tolerance for each other’s beliefs. When there are so many places to display religious imagery, the issue is not “religion in the public sphere”; it is whether government property is the proper place for religious expression.
Emphasis mine… note, she omitted the word “Christian” religious expression. Just pointing it out.
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