"Arizona airport answers prayers"

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Airport answers prayers
By Christine Keith
The Arizona Republic


When limousine driver Jihad Manfoukh needs a place to clean up before
praying, he heads to the taxi and limo holding lot at Sky Harbor
International Airport. 

There, on a blacktop expanse, airport authorities have installed a
cleanup station to help Manfoukh and other Muslim drivers meet their
religious needs. Two faucets, two feet above the ground, enable the
drivers to conduct ritual cleansing, including washing of the feet,
before they pray. 

They are situated as part of washroom facilities in a fenced-off parking
lot on the west side of the airport, where taxi drivers gather, waiting
to be called forward to the terminals for fares.

"The cab drivers were asking for more washroom facilities as a group,
and a majority of them wanted some place to wash before they pray," said
Deborah Ostreicher, public information officer for the airport.
"Sometimes there are as many as 400 drivers waiting, and they can be
there for hours at a time.

"This is a way we thought we could reach out as a customer service." 

The facility was funded through airport user fees, she said, not
taxpayer dollars.

Observant Muslims pray five times a day: at dawn, noon, midafternoon,
sunset and evening. 

Imam Abdur-Rahim Shamsid-Deen, spiritual leader of Masjid
Jauharatul-Islam in south Phoenix, said the station might be the first
in the United States for Muslim drivers. He said the drivers include
many refugees, including large contingents of Somalis and Pakistanis.

The cleansing, called ablution, is symbolic of purification,
Shamsid-Deen said. The hands, washed three times, represent actions, and
the feet, also washed three times, represent a solid foundation and a
means of travel. 

"We are preparing to communicate with the creator," Shamsid-Deen said.
"We need to be clean."

Manfoukh, a Chandler resident who was born in Lebanon, said Muslim
drivers have been asking for a place to wash their feet for about a
year. 

He estimates that 80 to 90 percent of drivers at the airport practice
Islam, adding that the group gets together and prays in a shaded area
beside the washrooms. 

"If you come at sunset, you can see 20 men or more praying together,"
Manfoukh said. "They are from all over the world, and they are working
hard here. They want to pray every day."

Abdul Malik Omar, who owns Metro Transportation, a limousine company,
said observers sometimes can see 30 or 40 people praying together in
open space. While the foot-washing station is helpful, more
accommodations are needed, he said, including a permanent place to pray.

Muslims are allowed to pray anywhere, as long as it is not considered
ritually dirty, as a washroom would be, and as long as they are facing
the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.


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