The Orlando International Airport will soon be opening a Muslim prayer room.
The airport will spend $350,000 to build the “Reflection Room” where Muslims can pray, a local CBS affiliate reported.
The decision was made after Emirates Airlines announced it will soon be offering direct flights out of Orlando to Dubai. A majority of the airline’s travelers are Muslim.
“These rooms provide travelers an opportunity an opportunity to pray in their own way and have peace before they take on a long flight,” Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told CNN’s local affiliate.
The room is expected be open by the Sept. 1 launch of the first Emirates flight out of Orlando.
Many Muslim travelers currently pray in public terminals and even in the bathrooms at the Orlando airport. The “Reflection Room” will give them a more suitable place to pray, said Carolyn Fennell, director of public affairs at the airport, CBS reported.
“So they aren’t having to, if it is the case, kneel on the bathroom floors or in corners so they have the reflective time,” Ms. Fennell said.
The airport already has a chapel in Terminal A and is expected to open an interdenominational chapel in the near future.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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