Foot Baths for Muslims? What Next?
Does the installation of foot baths for Muslims at a Michigan university show preferential treatment of religion, or protect the rights of students’ to practice religion?
The Islamic practice of washing one’s feet before praying has caused problems for the bathrooms at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, with water spillage creating unsafe floors and sinks being pulled out of the wall. The school is paying $25,000 to install foot baths on the basis of increasing safety and improving plumbing.
But Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State is right in highlighting the preferential treatment of Muslims in this issue. What’s to stop Catholics from demanding the installation of holy water fonts by every classroom door? If I was a member of the Church of Cognizance, which advocates the use of marijuana as a sacrament, would the school pay to build a special smoking room for my religious ritual?
The university should certainly allow for the building of foot baths, so that Muslim students’ right to practice their religion is not violated. But the Muslim community, or other private donors, should pay for it.
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[...] Maggie agrees that this could be a slippery slope: What’s to stop Catholics from demanding the installation of holy water fonts by every classroom door? If I was a member of the Church of Cognizance, which advocates the use of marijuana as a sacrament, would the school pay to build a special smoking room for my religious ritual? [...]
Solution: install public showers with hand held nozzles?
That way, the installation of the new “hygiene appliances” are a benefit to all…not just those practicing religious rites.
My muslim friends pray five times a day…they have to. Could you imagine having to raise your foot up to a sink five times a day and avoid slipping with wet feet?
This is a matter of social responsibility and sympathy for your fellow man. Have we too become so devoid of common-sense based flexibility in thinking that we’d callously adopt these “zero tolerance” type policies with no thought to human kindness or practicality?
A significant (though minority) portion of the school’s population have expressed a true need due to safety concerns. Sometimes, common sense and decency dictates that you occasionally bite the bullet and let the person with one item cut in front at the checkout line…yeah, you got there first, but it’s the right thing to do.
While I am a strict “separationist”, this objection strikes me as silly. In this particular case, broken sinks and wet floors provide a reasonable (and entirely non-religious) justification for installing low-level faucets and drains (which can be used for a number of purposes.)