The governor of Texas opposes the «sharia city»
The EPIC City project includes 1,000 homes for Muslims, a mosque and all services with an Islamic feel.
Image from the project's advertisement featuring the central mosque.
Epic City website
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The project Epic City, promoted by the East Plano Islamic Centre (EPIC), envisages the construction of a planned community at Josephine, Texas, of approximately 163 hectares. This development would include more than 1,000 homes for Muslims, a mosque, Islamic schools, clinics, shops, a halal banking system, parks and a residence for the elderly.
However, the project has generated controversy. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has expressed his opposition, stating that «Sharia cities» have no place in Texas. Abbott has ordered several state investigations into the project, including one by the Texas Rangers for possible criminal activities.
Abbott has also ordered a criminal investigation, alleging that the Islamic centre has committed various illegalities, such as operating as a funeral director without a licence and breaching investment regulations.“This proposed community will never see the light of day. More details soon.”, the governor said in a tweet.
The Islamic centre's response: “It is disinformation”
According to its promoters, EPIC City will be “the centre of Islam in America”, and will include 1,000 homes, a new mosque, schools, shops, parks and a residence for the elderly. The mosque would serve as the nerve centre of this city which, according to the organisation, would be open to everyone but centred on the Islamic way of life.
For their part, the promoters of EPIC City have defended the project. They assure that it will comply with all state and federal laws., including the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. They have emphasised that the community will be open to everyone and that there will be no exclusions on religious grounds.
The lawyer representing the East Plano Islamic Centre and the developers has accused the governor of spreading false information. They have emphasised that the project is still at the planning stage, with no work having begun or permits having been applied for. The project's website states that the city could be ready to live in between 2026 and 2027., but the project's future now hangs by a thread.
A public hearing full of tensions
Last Monday, dozens of people filled the Public session of Collin County to ask the commissioners to deny the necessary permits to start the works. During more than two hours of comments, The vast majority of participants expressed their rejection. to the project. Only two neighbours spoke in favour.
The radical Yasir Qhadi is the spiritual leader of Epic City.
The Muslim scholar Yasir Qadhi, the project's spiritual leader, has argued that It is an integrated and open neighbourhood., not of a sect or a space closed off from the rest of society. According to him, they want to offer a positive example of coexistence and civic participation.
Qadhi was born in the United States to a Pakistani family. He studied chemical engineering and studied the hadith in Medina. Today, He is an influential Islamic scholar in Texas with thousands of followers on YouTube.. Ideas from his sermons have been extracted by those opposed to Epic City to say that the project is an Islamic fortress. They are ideas that unfold into this report from the Rair Foundation as:
- Muslim women Never They can marry non-Muslim men.
- Women should not work outside the home, it promotes compulsory hijab, and it would have justified punishments such as stoning or execution for homosexuality.
- He warns Muslim men in America to avoid marrying non-Muslims to prevent assimilation.
- Any child born of a union forbidden (prohibited) is considered “born in adulterer”(illegitimate according to Sharia law and also illegal in Epic City)
- Muslim parents must do everything possible to prevent their children from integrating into non-Muslim society.
- The marriage contract (Islamic marriage) must be facilitated by parents to prevent young Muslims from seeking relationships outside Islam.
- He openly declares that Muslims must 'get closer to society» and gain political power.
- He claims that democracy is incompatible with Islam and that only Islamic law should govern people's lives.
For some, «Sharia is already in Texas.»
In Texas There are already Islamic residential areas where only Muslims live.. They are not ghettos for immigrants but for qualified professionals who want to live an Islamic lifestyle. In these closed communities The influence of Islamic law is so great that it already governs the lives of its members..
The Islamic neighbourhoods have been expanding. through a methodical strategy that combines the purchase of large tracts of land, the construction of homes for Muslim families, and the creation of its own infrastructure such as schools, mosques and shops. These communities are promoted as self-sufficient Islamic spaces, designed so that their residents can live according to the precepts of Sharia.
According to some reports, the objective would not be to coexist with American society, otherwise the formation of separate zones, Ideologically cohesive, operating with their own logic within North American territory. Some analysts warn that the growth of these communities is neither being monitored nor questioned with the intensity that, in their view, a sociopolitical transformation of this magnitude would require.
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