Muslims are crying ‘racism’ after an office worker placed a sign in a men’s bathroom in an office building in protest to Muslim workers washing their feet in the sink before their daily prayers.
Mohammad Faisal said it is his religious right to wash his feet in the bathroom sink saying, ‘it’s about being respectful to my religion’ as controversy brews over a sign banning Muslim staff from washing their feet in city office public sinks before their daily prayers.
Mohammad Faisal (pictured) washing his feet in the sink
Daily Mail reported that an anonymous building worker has sparked outrage by placing a sign on the men’s toilet of a Sydney city office block in an attempt to ban Muslims from washing their feet in the sink before their daily prayers.
The sign, which has a cartoon of a man with one of his feet in a sink and surrounded by a circle with a slash through it, was placed on the door of the men’s toilet of an office block on Pitt Street, in Sydney’s business district.
The sign is believed to have gone up on Wednesday, just days after a building worker queried one of the shop workers who use the toilet.
Mohammad Faisal, a business student who works 20 hours a week in the convenience store, told Daily Mail Australia that Dhuhr and Asr – two of the five daily prayers required by his religion – fall during his 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift at the shop.
He said that, as was the custom, he washed his hands, his mouth, his head and his neck, as well as his arms, and then placed his feet one at a time into one of the men’s rooms’ two sinks.
Faisal’s manager told his superior, who then contacted Muslim community advocate Zaky Mallah, out of outrage for the building employee’s alleged attempt to prevent working Muslims from using the sink for their ablutions.
This cartoon was stuck on the men’s bathroom door, depicting a man washing his feet in the sink with a ‘banned’ slash through the image
“This country has freedom of speech but that cartoon is racist and it is taking freedom of expression too far,” Mallah said. “When was it a crime to wash up in a men’s room for Muslim prayers? It happens everywhere around the world. When Muslims want to perform their five daily prayers they have to go and wash up. And it would be happening around Australia every day for Muslim men, and women too. Possibly this man [who put up the cartoon] thought he was being funny, but this is a ridiculous joke and it is intimidating people going about daily business.”
He said that, as was the custom, he washed his hands, his mouth, his head and his neck, as well as his arms, and then placed his feet one at a time into one of the men’s rooms’ two sinks.
‘When was it a crime to wash up in a men’s room for Muslim prayers? It happens everywhere around the world.
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How do you feel about this… would you want to use a counter and sink where people put their dirty feet?
Read the full story at Daily Mail
Photos courtesy of Daily Mail
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