Texas Gov Greg Abbott Steps In After Proposal To Install Islamic Washing Stations In Airport

A Republican governor forced a Texas airport to abandon its plan for Islamic ritual washing stations within hours of calling the project illegal.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott notified Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Friday that installing ablution facilities for Islamic wudu rituals would violate state and federal law, to a letter he sent the airport’s chief executive, Christopher McLaughlin. Abbott wrote that his office was reviewing every state grant tied to the airports involved and would move to claw back past funds and cancel future ones.

“These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion,” Abbott wrote to McLaughlin. “That is illegal. Both airports are government-owned facilities.” (RELATED: Abbott’s Texas Tech Boom Is Built On Broken Promises)

The governor referred DFW and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for investigation, to a separate letter he sent Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He asked the department and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to examine the religious accommodations at both airports and take corrective action, that letter stated. Abbott copied U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on the referral and looped in the mayors of Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth on the airport notice.

Abbott tied the dispute to an earlier clash, writing that using city-owned property to advertise a Muslim-only waterpark event was unlawful and that a Muslim-only washing station was no different, according to the McLaughlin letter. A news release from his office stated that grant recipients must certify compliance with anti-discrimination law when they accept an award.

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DFW confirmed it had been weighing an internal proposal to add two ablution stations, one in a men’s restroom and one in a women’s, on the pre-security side of Terminal D, according to Fox News Digital. The airport told Fox it accelerated its review as public interest grew and then dropped the plan, concluding the work would not deliver the operational value it first anticipated.

A regulatory filing logged the project at $300,000 and marked it privately funded, but DFW said its outside design firm entered both details in error, pegging the likely cost nearer $120,000 and confirming airport revenue would cover it, according to Fox News Digital. DFW said it runs on parking and concession income rather than taxpayer dollars.

DFW told KERA it has run an ablution station since 2019, and Houston’s airport has kept one open to all faiths since 2024, according to the Texas Tribune. Neither the cancellation nor DFW’s statement closed Abbott’s grant review or the federal referral.

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