Foot Baths for Muslim Students

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen Aug 9, 2007

At the University of Michigan-Dearborn, controversy is brewing over the installation of $25,000 foot baths in several campus restrooms. About 10% of students on campus are Muslim, and they need to wash their feet for their five-times-daily prayers. Since students were washing their feet in the sinks, the university installed the foot baths as a simple accommodation to help out a large portion of the campus population.

An uproar ensued. People argued the campus was promoting Islam and therefore violating the separation of church and state (or mosque and state, I suppose). They called it hypocritical that campuses across the U.S. have faced pressure to cut down upon or eliminate Christmas decorations at the same time that Muslim students were being accommodated with these foot baths.

I'm a huge advocate for the separation of church and state. But I don't see these foot baths as a violation of church and state at all. Here's why.

There's no need to get deeply into the argument of whether Christmas trees would be allowed on campus. (I think they should, in moderation and alongside secular ceremonial symbols of other religions and cultures). The foot bath issue is not the same thing as the Christmas tree issue. If Christmas decorations are banned from a college campus, this doesn't hinder Christian students from practicing their religion. On the other hands, Muslim students are required by their beliefs to wash their feet before their prayers. The foot baths are not necessary for that to happen, but they certainly makes this easier.

The foot baths are the equivalent of another college and university (and, in fact, federal) tradition-- closing campus on Christmas, and centering the winter break around Christmas. This allows Christian students to observe their holiday and to spend time with their families at this important time. Is this a violation fo church and state? No. It's a way of accommodating the needs of a very large portion of the student population. At the same time, colleges with large Jewish populations often close school on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to accommodate the needs of the Jewish students. And yes, days off from school cost money-- and quite a bit more money than those foot baths.

Colleges and universities are there to serve students. If a large portion of the population needs something that doesn't force other people to observe a religion that is not their own, schools should do their best to make reasonable accommodations.