(RNS) — Of their plans to create a neighborhood of 1,000 houses, a Okay-12 faith-based college, flats, retailers, a group school and a mosque, the builders of a 400-acre deliberate Muslim group close to Dallas made one essential misstep: They marketed their intentions.
“Welcome to the way forward for residing. Welcome to EPIC Metropolis,” mentioned the voice-over on a advertising video. “EPIC Metropolis is greater than only a neighborhood. It’s a lifestyle. A meticulously designed group that brings Islam to the forefront.”
That caught the eye of Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas lawmakers, who fired up fierce criticism and Islamophobic tropes concerning the plan.
Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Allen, additionally close to Dallas, wrote a letter in February about how “this large-scale actual property improvement could search to include parts of Sharia regulation into its operations. We should be certain that no entity makes an attempt to bypass state regulation beneath the guise of cultural or non secular lodging.”
All it took was the phrase “Sharia” for Abbott to enter the fray, saying on X in February that “Sharia regulation will not be allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities.”
Since then, Texas has launched 5 investigations into EPIC Metropolis, an initiative of the East Plano Islamic Middle that will be developed northeast of Dallas close to the city of Josephine. The Islamic middle and the Group Capital Companions funding group, a separate entity that’s heading the undertaking, are also being investigated. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, mentioned in Might that, as well as, the U.S. Division of Justice had launched a federal civil rights investigation, citing issues that EPIC Metropolis may discriminate in opposition to Christians and Jews.
The East Plano Islamic Middle in Plano, Texas. (Picture by Anisa Bhatti/Wikimedia/Inventive Commons)
Housing communities, deliberate or organically grown round a religion group, are nothing new in the USA. Williamsburg, a neighborhood in New York’s Brooklyn borough, has lengthy had a major focus of Hasidic Jews and is among the largest Orthodox Jewish communities within the U.S. The Englewood space of Indianapolis enjoys a big focus of Christian neighborhoods round Englewood Christian Church. Dearborn, Michigan, has a number of clusters of predominantly Muslim neighborhoods adjoining to native mosques.
These communities typically develop over time, with congregants of a selected home of worship attractive fellow worshippers to purchase houses or construct in adjoining neighborhoods. It’s not uncommon for such locations to come up from a deliberate effort of a selected home of worship or religion group.
Certainly, when residents of Irving, Texas, simply northwest of Dallas, constructed a mosque, mentioned Mustafaa Carroll, government director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Dallas-Fort Value chapter, “they didn’t promote something, and throughout it Muslims purchased homes with out the concern and hate that EPIC is dealing with.”
So, why the frenzy of accusations about Shariah and discrimination in terms of EPIC Metropolis?
For one factor, mentioned Carroll, “This was marketed earlier than anybody purchased a home, earlier than floor was damaged. Individuals received wind of it and have been like, ‘Oh my god, these scary Muslims are transferring to Josephine, Texas.’”
However the concern is nothing new, he mentioned. “The concern is that the Muslims are taking up. That’s at all times been their concern,” he mentioned, referring to American Christians. “They at all times had a concern of being taken over by somebody.”
The extent of anti-Muslim animosity directed towards the proposed EPIC Metropolis has precipitated management and worshippers on the EPIC mosque to place the undertaking on maintain whereas investigations play out. Its organizers have additionally gone silent after initially granting interviews about EPIC Metropolis.
“I’ve been doing civil rights work since I used to be 14 years outdated, and I’ve by no means seen the concern I’ve seen now with Muslims right here” in East Plano, Carroll mentioned. “They’re afraid to have their faces proven. Concern is overcoming them. I’m not shortchanging that; I don’t make mild of threats. You don’t know what individuals will do.”
Within the weeks previous to the launch of the federal civil rights investigation, I reached out to the management on the East Plano Islamic Middle to speak concerning the vitriolic pushback to the housing group, participating in a protracted Instagram alternate with EPIC Imam Nadim Bashir in hopes of getting permission for an interview.
Bashir is the middle’s longest-tenured imam and had beforehand been quoted in a New York Occasions story, during which he mentioned Abbott had stoked pointless concern based mostly on misunderstandings of issues like Shariah. “It’s a private ethical code of life, that’s all it’s,” Bashir instructed the Occasions. “Standing up for individuals, serving individuals, caring for your loved ones, being trustworthy, that is all a part of Shariah.”
What it isn’t, Bashir mentioned, is imposing Muslim non secular rule on others, as purported by Texas political figures.
Bashir ultimately agreed to an interview over the course of quite a few messages and sought approval from EPIC’s board of administrators. I additionally reached out to the board for permission to talk with Bashir and anybody else prepared to speak. In the end, Bashir needed to withdraw after EPIC’s board determined to bar all interviews.
Abbott has directed a number of state companies to analyze EPIC Metropolis, suggesting that it could be violating honest housing and monetary legal guidelines and that the mosque has performed unlawful funerals in its constructing.
Carroll says the allegations are unfounded, and whereas the proposed housing group is being marketed towards Muslims, there’s nothing promoting that it is just for Muslims. Within the months after Abbott’s declaration to close down the housing improvement, tensions have ramped up in and across the Dallas and Josephine areas.
On Might 1, at a Muslim group day hosted on the Texas Capitol in Austin, Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, approached the rostrum carrying a hijab to mix with the group, which she then eliminated upon reaching the rostrum, grabbing the mic and addressing the group with anti-Muslim rhetoric. As she hurled insults, she declared, “I’ll by no means let Shariah regulation take over the state of Texas.”
{That a} candidate for public workplace would co-opt a chunk of clothes worn for non secular functions to have the ability to seize a microphone and spew anti-Muslim statements to a Muslim crowd and face no penalties for her actions speaks volumes.
One mom wrote in an Instagram remark concerning the incident: “Our youth got here to this present day filled with hope — prepared to interact, study, and really feel pleased with who they’re. As an alternative, they have been compelled to expertise Islamophobia firsthand. However even within the face of hate, they held their heads excessive. … That is precisely why we do that work — so our youngsters can dwell in a world the place they’re free to be themselves with out concern.”
However for now, plans for EPIC Metropolis are on maintain, and in opposition to a local weather of xenophobia, intimidation and concern, nobody is speaking.
(Dilshad D. Ali is a contract journalist. The views expressed on this commentary don’t essentially mirror these of RNS.)
