Coming Clean About Footbaths
By MICHAEL D. EVANS
Published: August 7, 2007
Author: Dr. Evans is the author of several N.Y. Times Bestsellers including the #1 Bestseller, The Final Move Beyond Iraq.
There is a growing movement on American universities to grant Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms, and ritual footbaths. This is spurring a renewed debate on the separation of church – or mosque – and state. Aside from the question whether Islam is being treated preferentially over other religions, there is a more sinister issue: the link between Muslim student organizations and Islamist terrorism.
The debate was triggered by news that the University of Michigan-Dearborn is planning to install footbaths in at least two campus restrooms at the request of the local branch of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), to facilitate the ritual foot-washing some Muslims perform before praying the required five times a day.
When journalist Debbie Schlussel broke the story, it appeared to be an isolated incident. Then university spokesman Terry Gallagher insisted that footbaths for Muslim students is a growing trend on American campuses, citing Boston University, Cal State-Fullerton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington University of St. Louis, as installing footbaths. He told Schlussel that, "We wanted to be part of that trend in accommodating Muslim students."
The fact that public universities and public funds are constitutionally barred from supporting any religion is not the problem (the Michigan footbaths are to cost some $27,000). This is a case that was made for the American Civil Liberties Union and I would be surprised if they weren't already preparing a challenge in the courts.
What is far more worrisome is where this new campus trend is coming from and what it means. According to spokesman Gallagher, the footbath initiative is the result of "years of ongoing negotiations with the Muslim Student Association." This group, which has some 150 branches in campuses throughout the US, is not your everyday student interest group or religious association.
The Chicago Tribune in 2004 exposed the radical MSA as an American branch of the notorious Egyptian terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. This group, which became well known for its part in the murder of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, played a key role in the 9/11 attack on the United States.
While no one is suggesting the average Muslim student is involved in terrorism, one cannot ignore the fact that certain exceptional Muslim students are. Recently Syed Maaz Shah – the former head of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Texas-Dallas -- was convicted of illegally possessing firearms while attending a Muslim terrorist training camp where he allegedly sought to kill Americans.
According to Stephen Schwartz, policy analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, "MSA presents itself as a campus-service organization not much different from other collegiate faith groups. But the reality is very different, and deeply sinister. MSA is a key element in the Wahhabi lobby, and a cornerstone of the conspiracy by Saudi-backed extremists to control American Islam, as well the public discourse about Islam in America."
The MSA is on record as defending the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and its chapters have distributed the propaganda of Osama bin Laden on their Web sites. In addition, the MSA has strong ties with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, which is directed from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. WAMY's US offices in Virginia have been a main focus of the federal investigation of funding by Islamist terrorist groups following 9/11.
The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to recreating the Islamic civilization of the caliphates of the 7th and 8th centuries, with all that implies for non-believers, not to mention women's rights. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood created Hamas and its supporters helped found al-Qaida.
The Brotherhood also arranged for Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists to attend al-Qaida terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, where they planned the worst terrorist assault on America so far. The issue on US campuses today is not about Muslims having ritually clean feet, but Muslims with blood on their hands.
Published: August 7, 2007
Author: Dr. Evans is the author of several N.Y. Times Bestsellers including the #1 Bestseller, The Final Move Beyond Iraq.
There is a growing movement on American universities to grant Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms, and ritual footbaths. This is spurring a renewed debate on the separation of church – or mosque – and state. Aside from the question whether Islam is being treated preferentially over other religions, there is a more sinister issue: the link between Muslim student organizations and Islamist terrorism.
The debate was triggered by news that the University of Michigan-Dearborn is planning to install footbaths in at least two campus restrooms at the request of the local branch of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), to facilitate the ritual foot-washing some Muslims perform before praying the required five times a day.
When journalist Debbie Schlussel broke the story, it appeared to be an isolated incident. Then university spokesman Terry Gallagher insisted that footbaths for Muslim students is a growing trend on American campuses, citing Boston University, Cal State-Fullerton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington University of St. Louis, as installing footbaths. He told Schlussel that, "We wanted to be part of that trend in accommodating Muslim students."
The fact that public universities and public funds are constitutionally barred from supporting any religion is not the problem (the Michigan footbaths are to cost some $27,000). This is a case that was made for the American Civil Liberties Union and I would be surprised if they weren't already preparing a challenge in the courts.
What is far more worrisome is where this new campus trend is coming from and what it means. According to spokesman Gallagher, the footbath initiative is the result of "years of ongoing negotiations with the Muslim Student Association." This group, which has some 150 branches in campuses throughout the US, is not your everyday student interest group or religious association.
The Chicago Tribune in 2004 exposed the radical MSA as an American branch of the notorious Egyptian terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. This group, which became well known for its part in the murder of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, played a key role in the 9/11 attack on the United States.
While no one is suggesting the average Muslim student is involved in terrorism, one cannot ignore the fact that certain exceptional Muslim students are. Recently Syed Maaz Shah – the former head of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Texas-Dallas -- was convicted of illegally possessing firearms while attending a Muslim terrorist training camp where he allegedly sought to kill Americans.
According to Stephen Schwartz, policy analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, "MSA presents itself as a campus-service organization not much different from other collegiate faith groups. But the reality is very different, and deeply sinister. MSA is a key element in the Wahhabi lobby, and a cornerstone of the conspiracy by Saudi-backed extremists to control American Islam, as well the public discourse about Islam in America."
The MSA is on record as defending the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and its chapters have distributed the propaganda of Osama bin Laden on their Web sites. In addition, the MSA has strong ties with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, which is directed from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. WAMY's US offices in Virginia have been a main focus of the federal investigation of funding by Islamist terrorist groups following 9/11.
The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to recreating the Islamic civilization of the caliphates of the 7th and 8th centuries, with all that implies for non-believers, not to mention women's rights. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood created Hamas and its supporters helped found al-Qaida.
The Brotherhood also arranged for Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists to attend al-Qaida terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, where they planned the worst terrorist assault on America so far. The issue on US campuses today is not about Muslims having ritually clean feet, but Muslims with blood on their hands.
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