Hypocrites or Infidels?

The ACLU has made its living by, among other things, harassing government entities large and small over the slightest suspicion of church-state intermingling. Just one close-to-home example: they sued (successfully, unfortunately) to keep a crèche off-display in Pittsburgh.

Now comes the story of footwashing basins at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus, paid for by public funds. They're relatively cheap, some $25,000, but it's public funding nonetheless. According to the Council for American-Islamic Relations, the basins allow Muslims to prepare for prayers.

The ACLU, however, has no quarrel with this, claiming it is a "reasonable accommodation" to a problem.

The basins serve exactly one purpose - part of the Muslim prayer ritual. That's fine, I have no objections to this, nobody gets hurt, everyone's happy. The problem arises in the ACLU's treatment of the use of public funds. Islam-state interaction: good; Christian-state interaction: bad.

So, apparently the ACLU is apparently an organization of hypocrites, claiming to fight for church-state separation... as long as it's the right (or wrong) church, and giving a pass for others.

Or perhaps... just maybe... the ACLU is claiming that Islam is not a religion at all, hence there is no issue with public funds being used for its rituals.

If there is some simple, honest alternative that I've missed, then I'd be interested to hear it. But if I hear any defense at all, I'd wager it'll be some of the most tortured logic I've seen.

Barring alternatives, the ACLU are either hypocrites, or infidels.

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