{"id":1003310,"date":"2026-08-15T23:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003310\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:22:19","slug":"greg-abbott-threatens-dallas-houston-airports-grant-funds-over-islamic-washing-facilities-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003310\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Abbott threatens Dallas, Houston airports\u2019 grant funds over Islamic washing facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS, Texas (The Texas Tribune) – Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly used for Islamic prayer after Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> on Friday threatened to withdraw state and federal funding.<\/p>\n

Abbott sent a letter<\/a> to the North Texas airport\u2019s CEO Christopher McLaughlin, as well as the mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, stating his office was in the process of reviewing all grant funds over facilities in their cities\u2019 airports. He also sent a letter<\/a> to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to refer the airports for federal investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,\u201d Abbott said in a news release announcing the grant reviews. \u201cBoth airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of the investigation and grant reviews are ablution facilities, used by Muslim people for wudu, in which hands and feet are rinsed prior to prayer. Abbott said the facilities \u201cappear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion\u201d in his letter to the mayors and said funding would be revoked if their use continued.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s airport has had an ablution room since 2024<\/a>, described as for use by people of all faiths. DFW told KERA<\/a> that it has had a station since 2019.<\/p>\n

Houston Airport did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Abbott\u2019s public announcement about the grant reviews, a DFW airport spokesperson said in a statement that plans for the facility had been cancelled after deciding it \u201cwould not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike all proposed projects, the airport ultimately considers the operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving them,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Anti-Islamic<\/a> rhetoric has been at the forefront of Texas Republican messaging through the year, as GOP leaders have railed for months about the urgency of ending the so-called \u201cIslamification\u201d of Texas.<\/p>\n

Abbott has repeatedly used<\/a> threats of withdrawing funding as a means of exerting control over Texas cities to press issues important to the GOP base in the state. Most recently, Abbott threatened $530,000 in grants for Grand Prairie unless the city canceled an event at a water park initially advertised as a \u201cMuslims only\u201d gathering. He also threatened funding for transportation last year unless cities removed rainbow crosswalks<\/a> intended to show support for LGBTQ+ communities.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s letters about the ablution facilities follow another letter sent Thursday by Sen. Tan Parker<\/a>, R-Flower Mound, to DFW airport officials. Parker, who chairs the state Senate\u2019s transportation committee, sent a list of questions<\/a> to administrators asking how the private donation for the facility was accepted and who it came from.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS, Texas (The Texas Tribune) – Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1003189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,79623,46576,9420,401682,401681,358,3187,401680,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1003310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-and-fort-worth","tag-dallas-fort-worth-international-airport","tag-gov-greg-abbott","tag-mayors-of-houston","tag-north-texas-airports-ceo-christopher-mclaughlin","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-u-s-transportation-secretary-sean-duffy","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117102100249409955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}