Texas Governor Greg Abbott has escalated a fight over religious accommodation at two of the state’s largest airports, targeting Islamic ritual washing stations used by Muslim travelers for daily prayers.
For years, travelers passing through Texas’s two biggest airports have had access to small washing stations for wudu, an Islamic ritual of purification in which Muslims clean their hands, arms, head, and feet before the five daily prayers.
A document from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation revealed that Dallas Fort Worth International Airport had planned to install dedicated Muslim ablution stations, including two fixtures in Terminal D, one in the men’s restroom and one in the women’s restroom.
The $300,000 installation was privately funded, registered with Texas regulators on July 31, and had been expected to reach completion by December 31, 2026.
Abbott sent a letter to officials at both the Houston and Dallas airports arguing that facilities accommodating one religious group are discriminatory against people of other faiths.
Abbott also said he asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate both airports and warned that his office is “reviewing all grants to any local governmental entities involved in these schemes.”
Later that same day, DFW announced it had scrapped plans to add additional washing stations, with airport spokesman Heath Montgomery writing that officials “determined the originally anticipated benefit may not be achieved” if the stations were built.
Montgomery said the decision was made before Abbott’s letter was issued, but acknowledged that airport officials “were aware of his and other public officials’ emerging concerns.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Keith Self wrote on X that “Islamic foot-washing stations are coming soon to DFW,” calling it “conquest” and adding, “The Sharia takeover happening right before our eyes must be stopped!”
Republican U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill also criticized the installation on X, drawing a provocative comparison between airports accommodating Muslims in 2026 and the airline terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Abbott for opposing the wudu stations, accusing him of performing another “anti-Muslim political stunt,” while legal experts disputed his claims that the washing stations are discriminatory.
Abbott has previously threatened $530,000 in grants for Grand Prairie unless the city canceled an event at a water park initially advertised as a “Muslims only” gathering, and he threatened transportation funding unless cities removed rainbow crosswalks supporting LGBTQ+ communities.
Abbott has also led GOP efforts to block a residential development planned around a large mosque complex in the Dallas area, and Texas officials denied Islamic schools access to the state voucher program until a judge ordered them not to.
At the Texas RNC convention in Houston in June, Republicans added a provision to their platform banning “sharia,” or Islamic law, despite the fact that sharia law does not apply under U.S. civil law.
At the Houston airport on August 18, travelers continued using the wudu rooms ahead of midday prayers, with a Canadian mother and her teenage son noting that ablution stations are commonplace in Canada, underscoring how other countries routinely treat such facilities as standard religious accommodation.
