Alright, you’ve heard a lot about the
recent plane crash at San Francisco International Airport. But did you ever hear about the airport’s
pandering to Islam? As if things
couldn’t get any more ridiculous, San Francisco International Airport has
constructed a designated space for Muslims in which they can wash their hands
and feet before they pray.
While the adherents to Islam are
required to offer prayers 5-times a day, along with a ritual that also calls
for a ceremonial cleansing, many San Francisco cab drivers are apparently unable
to accomplish this in the existing bathroom facilities. At least that’s what it sounds like they want
us to believe.
According to SFGate (San Francisco Bay Area News): For many cab drivers, that’s
meant either lugging bottled water around or using one of the bathrooms inside
the terminal to wash — a practice not always welcomed by airport passengers. So Royal Cab driver Hasan Khan, 52, a
Pakistani immigrant, collected some 300 signatures from fellow cabbies, urging
the airport to give them their own cleansing station. Airport ‘brass’ obliged — and the wash
equipment was installed on the ground floor of the main garage, right next to
where the drivers congregate for their breaks. Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said, “The way we
look at it … this was in the interest of maintaining a good relationship with
ground transportation providers.”
Ah, but how was this funded? Did they use public money? Yes they did. Mr. Yakel says that those resources were
nominal, with work done by in-house plumbers. So can a non-Muslim use the facility? Good luck with that! Do Christians get a chapel at the San
Francisco International Airport? No, they
get the interfaith Berman Reflection Room – a center for quiet self-reflection
and meditation. Why didn’t the cab
companies that hire these Muslims or a local Islamic mosque pay for the
cleansing station … rather than public money?
I never cease to be amazed at the
hypocrisy of public officials.
Apparently the people who live in San Francisco … who seem to always cry
for the ‘separation of church and state’ … are okay with this or are oblivious. Probably both!
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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