Opposition forming to ‘Sharia’ city planned in Texas by soft-terror advocate

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took to X to condemn a video promoting plans for an Islamic “Sharia” city, a 402-acre enclave in Josephine, Texas.

Called EPIC, which stands for East Plano Islamic Center, the city is being touted as the “epicenter of Islam in America.”

“To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas,” said Abbott about the project. “Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are ‘no go zones’ which this project seems to imply.

“Bottom line: The project as proposed in the video is not allowed in Texas.”  

“No go zones” are references to areas in Europe where unbelievers are not allowed because the mass migration of Islamists has turned them hostile to outsiders, much like the public housing ghettos of 1970s America, such as Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor Homes, were hostile to outsiders.  

Critics of the project have noted that one of the main organizers, Yasir Qadhi, has been a longtime apologist for holy war against America and the West. 

“The terror-linked U.S. imam building a Sharia city in Texas openly admits Hamas is his ‘own’ people—and refuses to condemn their slaughter of Israelis,” said Amy Mek, at RAIR Foundation, whose social media posts drew the attention of Abbott to the EPIC project.   

While the New York Times called Qadhi a “peaceful radical” Islamist, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPOT) says he “agrees” with “the radical ideas [that] fuel violent jihad.”   

Qadhi defended Ali al-Timimi as a “sophisticated [voice] of reason representing orthodox Islam in the Western world,” for example, according to IPOT. Ali al-Timimi, who lived in Northern Virginia, was given a decades-long sentence for encouraging men to join the Taliban and commit acts of terrorism. 

But Qadhi is also a high-toned Islamist, judging by the EPIC project, even if, as IPOT claims, he’s a soft-terror advocate.  

The Dallas Morning News reported that previously the EPIC project contained exclusive language about who might be able to buy homes in the development.  

“Realizing that many responsible citizens of other countries might be interested in our properties, our offering is open to any person we approve [editor’s emphasis] within the property and investment laws of the United States,” the project’s website said, according to the Morning News. “[W]e will limit sales to only persons we believe will contribute to the overall makeup of our community [editor’s emphasis] and are legally eligible to invest and buy property in the United States.” 

After being contacted by the Morning News, the developer, Community Capital Partners (CCP), changed the wording to include some boilerplate diversity, equity and inclusion language that will likely comply with federal laws against discrimination.  

“Our vision is to build a diverse and inclusive community – one in which people of every background, faith, and culture can live together in harmony,” the website now reads, said the Morning News.  

But CCP added a loophole, telling the newspaper that “we will conduct thorough individualized assessments of prospective buyers to ensure they align with our goals of safety and security.” 

Because the investment is made inside a limited partnership, the development can only accept the applications from wealthy or “accredited” investors. 

Accredited investors must have an income of over $200,000 annually ($300,000 jointly), and reasonably expect to maintain that level, and a net worth of $1 million excluding a primary residence, plus be reasonably sophisticated as an investor, as the investment is difficult to sell.  

EPIC has already built a mosque, a gymnasium, and two schools, one for girls and one for boys. 

Included in the investment is a tax-deductible contribution to the community mosque and the schools, but CCP admits it hasn’t yet calculated how much that tax deduction will be, nor how much the homeowners association fees will cost.   

The building of EPIC City is called “the next bold step” in Islamic development, according to the promoters.  

But Texas conservatives, like Mek, have called the city “a threat to all non-Muslims!” including Hindus, against whom Qadhi railed, according to Mek’s social media post, calling them an inspiration for Nazism.