After weeks of fury and opposition over a Texas mosque and its plans to build a Muslim city outside of Dallas, mosque leaders are speaking out, claiming mosque members are facing violence.
The East Plano Islamic Center or EPIC has lawyered up, hiring a ‘high-profile attorney’ to help them take on the Republican governor who has accused the mosque of breaking the law.
EPIC, a sprawling house of worship located in Plano, Texas has recently become a target for Gov. Greg Abbott over its plans to build a city for Muslims- called EPIC City- in a rural area about 30 minutes from the existing mosque.
Even though no arrests or charges have been made, Abbott has repeatedly claimed EPIC is breaking the law and has ordered both criminal and civil investigations into the mosque and its planned community.
‘We are regularly receiving hate calls and death threats,’ EPIC’s board of directors said in a statement posted to Facebook Thursday.
‘Our mosque leaders’ personal home addresses have been shared, jeopardizing the safety of families.’
EPIC denies it’s broken the law in any way and claimed that ‘its doors remain open to anyone.’
Meanwhile, the mosque’s new attorney held a press conference Wednesday standing in front of giant blow-ups of the governor’s many accusation-filed tweets against the mosque.
Monday, the governor demanded the mosque to stop construction of EPIC City or face the ‘full weight of the law’ in an online post to X.
‘Perhaps the governor and his staff aren’t xenophobic,’ Attorney Dan Cogdell lashed out.
‘Perhaps they’re just plain ignorant or choose to be ignorant, but spoiler alert, they haven’t even started construction. They haven’t even applied for the permits. For him to say, “Stop it, or the full weight of the law will come down on you…it’s just utter nonsense. It’s insane.”‘
However, EPIC is facing an uphill battle to get permits from both Collin and Hunt counties– where the land they own sits near Josephine, Texas.
In order for them to turn the 402 acres of fields into a city with a brand new mosque serving as the town center 1,000 new homes, schools and a shopping center, both counties will have to sign off.
Opponents of EPIC flooded a public meeting Monday in hopes of stopping a controversial Islamic compound from getting necessary permits to begin construction.
For hours, the Collin County Commissioners Court heard dozens of speakers pleading with them to deny the permits needed to build whats been called ‘the epicenter of Islam in America’ by organizers.
Many residents of the 2,000-person town of Josephine voiced their concerns, although the Islamic development is outside the city limits.
‘They want to install a loud system, a speaker system, that would blast their music to call them to prayer, and they could do it as long as they wanted to because they specifically choose a site just outside the city so they can do that,’ Susan Martinez told the commission.
She also shared that her small, rural community is already dealing with water restrictions, even without any new construction.
Gov. Abbott has repeatedly claimed that the city will introduce extremist sharia law practices to Texas, which would govern religion, marriage and punishment for crime.
Practicing Sharia law is illegal in the Lone Star State.
‘We are uncovering legal violations by EPIC City that go far beyond what people realize,’ Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted.
‘The proposed community will never see the light of day. More to come.’
Abbott alleges the mosque broke the law by operating as a funeral home.
‘They are knowingly breaking state law in many ways, including by operating a funeral home without a license,’ Abbott posted to X last week.
‘This is a crime, and it will not be tolerated.’
A cease and desist went out, ordering the mosque to stop preparing bodies for burial, and Abbott asked the local district attorney to pursue criminal charges.
Abbott has directed multiple state agencies to look into potential crimes in hopes of stopping the planned community near Josephine, Texas.
‘Quit tweeting lies, false information and nonsense, because my clients right now, what they are doing is suffering from essentially gubernatorial hate speech, Cogdell added.
‘They are afraid for their lives because of the falsehoods that the governor’s office has started.’ Even if Abbott is successful in stopping the new development, EPIC already has a big footprint in Plano.
The huge mosque is surrounded by schools and a gym.
Across the street, there is also an business called ‘EPIC Market’ and halal shops catering to the Muslims that live in the streets around the mosque.
The large, two story luxury homes with expensive cars in the drive ways were all decorated for Ramadan, with Christmas lights used to celebrate the holy month of fasting.
In what could be a key vote for EPIC City’s future, Collin County Commissioners will decide whether to approve a permit on April 14.