In most circumstances, the development of a 400-acre field of corn and hay outside Josephine, Texas, would hardly stand out in the state, just another parcel of farmland set to become houses in the ever-expanding sprawl of the Dallas suburbs.
Yet in recent months, Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown himself into stopping the planned community. The reason? It would be anchored by a mosque.
“To be clear, Shariah law is not allowed in Texas,” the Republican governor wrote on social media in late February, reposting a video advertising the project. “Nor are Shariah cities.”
Nearly a quarter century has passed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised anti-Muslim sentiment around the country, often under the banner of fighting Islamic law, or Shariah. It has been 15 years since politicians in New York and Washington fanned the furor over a proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan near where the Twin Towers fell.
Over that time, the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has swelled by more than 60 percent, to around 8.3 million. Its growth has included a diverse influx of new Texans from all over the world, many of them Muslim, but also Hindu, Christian and Jewish.
But Josephine’s master-planned community of about 1,000 homes proposed by members of the East Plano Islamic Center, known as EPIC, has shown how old sentiments can linger.
“There is no crime here,” protested Dan Cogdell, a veteran criminal defendse lawyer hired by the Islamic Center to defend the development. “It’s 9/11 all over again in terms of the reaction.”
Before Mr. Abbott’s involvement, few outside of North Texas had heard of the development. Now, nearly the whole state has.
Mr. Abbott has posted about the development at least 11 times in recent weeks. He suggested the developers may have violated fair housing and financial laws, and accused the Islamic center of conducting illegal funerals.
The governor ordered multiple overlapping investigations. Not to be outdone, the state’s conservative attorney general, Ken Paxton, added his own criminal inquiry.
The state’s actions have fueled opposition to the proposed housing development, known as EPIC City, before any initial plans have been submitted. At a hearing on the project in Collin County, where part of it would be located, hours of public comment included expressions of anti-Muslim hostility.
“This is so wrong,” one speaker, Kyle Sims, said. “This country is based on Judeo-Christian values.”
“I know what this would mean,” said another speaker, Krista Schild, a Republican precinct chair in Hunt County, where a portion of the project would be also be located. “Honor killings, stonings, marrying their young girls off to older men.”
Leaders at the East Plano Islamic Center say such views reflect a lack of knowledge of their religion.
Imam Nadim Bashir, who was born in Florida, raised in Texas and leads the mosque, said the governor had created “unnecessary fear” based on misunderstandings of religious ideas like Shariah.
“It’s a personal moral code of life, that’s all it is,” he said. “Standing up for people, serving people, taking care of your family, being honest, this is all part of Shariah.”
It is not, he said, about imposing Muslim religious rules on others, as the governor suggested. “Why is he making up things which we have never, ever said?” the imam said. “We will always work within the laws of the United States and the state of Texas.”
A spokesman for the governor, Andrew Mahaleris, said in a statement that “shining a light on potential misconduct serves to protect Texans — not stoke anger toward violators.”
There have been other attempts to block smaller projects by Muslim developers elsewhere in North Texas, including an ongoing fight in the town of Blue Ridge. Many of them have been highlighted by a frequent online critic of Islam, Amy Mekelburg. It was her social media post about EPIC City that was reposted by Mr. Abbott in February.
The Texas governor has long kept tabs on emerging social media outrage on the right and has occasionally responded with state action. In 2015, Mr. Abbott deployed the Texas State Guard to “monitor” a U.S. military training exercise that conspiracy theorists said was really a clandestine effort by President Obama to take over the state.
And recently Republican leaders in Texas have been alarmed by residential communities that appear to cater to particular home buyers, especially a sprawling development outside of Houston known as Colony Ridge where many buyers were undocumented.
Still, the sudden attacks from Mr. Abbott caught members of the East Plano Islamic Center off guard. The center and its congregants have been fixtures in Plano for two decades, providing a food bank, mobile medical services and, in recent years, the city’s only warming center during cold weather.
To respond to the investigations, they hired Mr. Cogdell, who helped successfully lead Mr. Paxton’s defense team during his impeachment trial in 2023.
Mr. Cogdell then invited state investigators to visit with the developers and inspect the paperwork.
“We never thought the project would get this much attention,” said Imran Chaudhary, who has been leading the project for a private entity, Community Capital Partners, connected to the Islamic center.
One of his partners, Sarfraz Ahmad, surveyed the empty, muddy fields and said ruefully, “This is EPIC City.”
Shortly before visiting the site, Mr. Chaudhary received a call from a masked number, one of many he had gotten in recent weeks, often in the middle of the night.
“Get out of America,” a man said with an expletive, with Mr. Chaudhary’s phone on speaker, before hanging up.
Mr. Chaudhary, a senior manager at an information technology company, and Mr. Ahmad, a custom home builder, said they had been excited to close on the land and announce the project last year. They quickly found 500 people interested in investing in the project, including members of the mosque, who each put in $80,000 for the right to later buy a plot.
Opponents of the development pointed to statements and marketing materials that appeared aimed at attracting only Muslim buyers. “It’s a way of life, a meticulously designed community that brings Islam to the forefront,” according to a promotional video posted last year.
Mr. Chaudhary said the intention was never for the community to be only open to Muslims.
Officials in Josephine declined to discuss the project, which has been a topic of conversation among local residents since last year.
“I heard about this at least six months ago,” said Pastor Wayne Slay of the First Baptist Church of Josephine, which has been at the center of the city since 1888. “I don’t think our church is going to go out and protest. I don’t think that’s an appropriate response.”
The development could be an opportunity to reach people for Jesus, Pastor Slay said. “Jesus says love your neighbor like yourself,” he said. “So why would I want to antagonize my neighbor?”
At the East Plano Islamic Center on a recent weekday, a mobile camera tower stood conspicuously in the middle of the parking lot. An armed guard watched the door while inside, elementary students at the faith-based elementary school played basketball on the center’s large hardwood courts.
The Islamic center in Plano resembles the kinds of large religious campuses — Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist — that are found all over the diverse suburbs of Dallas.
“People need to understand that Muslims here in Plano, we’re just like everyone else,” said Imam Bashir.
“We have doctors, we have engineers, we have professors, we have IT workers,” he said. “And we want what everyone wants,” he added, safe neighborhoods and good schools.
For funerals held in the mosque, there is a specialized room where the body can be washed and shrouded as per the religious ritual that includes prayers. What must be done to the body under Texas law is done under contract with a funeral home, said Mohamad Baajour, the mosque’s director of education.
But last month, the Texas Funeral Service Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering the mosque to stop “funeral service operations” and making a criminal referral to the local district attorney.
Since then, the mosque has stopped holding funeral services, Mr. Cogdell said.
“I wish my words could get across to every single American,” said Imam Bashir, “and that is that if you have questions about our religion, come to us, sit down with us, talk to us, and we will tell you.”
The congregation has grown to several thousand from a few hundred when it began in the early 2000s. Andy Odom, the pastor at a nearby Presbyterian Church who has had regular breakfasts with Imam Bashir, said he found the community welcoming.
“They’ve done nothing but try and be the best neighbors to everyone around them,” he said. Amid the negative attention, Pastor Odom said he reached out to offer support. “I’ve been personally praying for them,” he said.
At the same time, Pastor Odom was hesitant about the proposed residential development, which he worried might appear to be an attempt to live separately. “I’m ambivalent about the project,” he said. “But I am not ambivalent about them as a mosque or community in our neighborhood.”
J. David Goodman is the Houston bureau chief for The Times, reporting on Texas and Oklahoma.
The post Texas Muslims Want to Build Homes and a Mosque. The Governor Says No. appeared first on New York Times.
