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Greg Abbott steps in — Islamic foot washing stations at Texas airports declared ‘illegal’

August 15, 2026 | | Print Article

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to the controversial plan to install Islamic foot washing stations at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The proposed move sparked outrage and accusations of religious favoritism after Fox News Digital reported on the privately funded $300,000 “Wudu Ablution” station project that was registered with state regulators on July 31.

“Project consists of adding Ablution stations to existing concourse level restrooms in Terminal D, one Men’s ablution station in existing men’s restroom and one Women’s ablution station in the existing women’s restroom,” the details read, according to the outlet.

The special Muslim accommodations are already installed at some major travel hubs, such as O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, which also has an interconnecting prayer room.

But there is one major problem. The stations are illegal, an inconvenient fact pointed out by Abbott in a Friday post to X in which the Lone Star State Republican announced that he had referred DFW and IAH to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for investigation, also vowing to revoke current and future state grants over the religious discrimination.

“Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others,” the Texas governor wrote on Friday. “DFW plans to install Islamic wudu washing facilities are illegal. I’ve directed a review of all state grants to both airports for possible revocation, and referred DFW & IAH to USDOT for investigation.”

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“These ablution facilities appear designated to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,” Abbott said. “Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government 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.”

Abbott’s intervention brought immediate results with DFW backing away from the project after the governor put his foot down.

“DFW was in the process of evaluating an internal proposal to add a set of ablution washing stations on the pre-security side of Terminal D, the international terminal. Like all proposed projects, the airport ultimately considers the operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving them,” the airport told Fox News Digital on Friday.

“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 added.

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“Texas will not allow illegal religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded facilities,” Gov. Abbott vowed.

Chris Donaldson
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