Crusader Protest in Dearborn Brews & Blanche Fights For Voter Information | 8.17.26

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**John Bickley** (0:34)
The debate over Islam's growing influence in the US ratchets up with foot washing stations and airports and a potential showdown in Dearborn, Michigan this week.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:43)
So both for any proposed or any existing facilities like that are simply unconstitutional and illegal.

**John Bickley** (0:50)
I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, August 17th. This is Morning Wire.

**Georgia Howe** (1:03)
80 days out and the key races to control the Senate are heating up, while the DOJ eyes more aggressive action on voter rolls.

**Todd Blanche** (1:11)
What I think every American should expect us to do, which is make sure that we have elections that are fair. And as that relates to the Department of Justice, that means making sure that there are no constitutional legal violations even at the state level.

**John Bickley** (1:25)
And the 60-day ceasefire agreement with Iran officially expires. What comes next in the standoff and how are conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln?

**Georgia Howe** (1:34)
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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**John Bickley** (2:44)
Two separate controversies involving Islam and public facilities have erupted in Texas and Michigan. After public backlash, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport just scrapped plans for a new Islamic foot washing station, while Dearborn officials say they're bracing for anti-Islam protests.

**Georgia Howe** (3:02)
Joining us now is Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham. So Megan, there are a lot of moving parts to the controversy in Texas, so let's go ahead and start there. How did this foot washing station come to be?

**Megan Basham** (3:15)
Yeah, Georgia. So DFW had been evaluating a proposal to install these new Islamic foot washing stations that are dedicated to ritual purification before prayer. It's a practice known as Wudu. And the project was registered in late July with an estimated cost around $300,000.
An airport authority said that it was designed to prevent foot washing in standard sinks that were doing some damage to the airport. But Governor Greg Abbott spoke out against it on Friday, and he called it illegal religious discrimination. He said that a public facility cannot provide a special benefit to one faith while denying comparable treatment to other faiths. And he also ordered a review of the state grants for these stations and then referred the matter to the Department of Transportation. Now within hours of that, that's when DFW scrapped the plan altogether. And they said that an accelerated review found, quoting here, insufficient operational benefit. But some critics on the right say that Abbott is only speaking out against this now because it drew public scrutiny and that Texas airports have had foot washing stations like this since 2019
And they're also pointing to Abbott's biggest long-term donor who is a Muslim oil executive who was born in Pakistan.