Controversial Mosque Planning to Build Islamic City in Texas

A Texas mosque that has sparked controversy over its plans to build a city for Muslims outside of Dallas already has an existing neighborhood, The Daily Mail has reported.

The Islamic community in Plano is already home to hundreds of Allah's followers, and features expensive, two story homes, a shopping center and a clinic.

The East Plano Islamic Center or EPIC, intends to break ground on a town for its followers near the City of Josephine- about 40 minutes away from the existing mosque.

EPIC City, as the project is known, would be anchored by a brand new mosque and include 1,000 homes, green spaces and schools for the people of that faith.

However, the future of the EPIC City is in jeopardy, after hundreds of locals have fiercely spoken out against the mosque's efforts- storming a public meeting where officials were considering whether to grant EPIC building permits.

Additionally, Gov. Greg Abbott has promised the development will 'never see the light of day' while accusing EPIC of breaking the law and practicing Sharia law.

Even though not a single person has been arrested or charged in connection to Abbott's many accusations about what he claims is happening at EPIC, hysteria is at a fever pitch, with mosque-goers getting death threats.

But even before a single brick of the planned city is laid, EPIC already has a sprawling neighborhood around it in Plano.

The green domed house of worship is massive, large enough to accommodate 3,200 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the Lone Star State.

Giant parking lots surround the mosque, and the property is also the site of a gym, schools, and a clinic.

On either side of the mosque are dozens of homes featuring Arabic writing on their facades.

Luxury cars could be seen parked in the driveways, and most of the properties are valued at around $1 million, according to public tax records.

People can be seen walking from their homes to the mosque for their daily five times of prayer.

Many members of the mosque also live in the apartment complex directly across the street from EPIC.

Their way of life spills out even further to a shopping center for Muslims.

The biggest store is EPIC Market, a halal-certified grocery store.

There are also two restaurants and a coffee shop that lends out prayer rugs to customers sipping on Yemeni brews.

Dari Living, which describes itself as 'America's first luxury senior residence embracing Islamic traditions' on its website is also located there.

'They feel threatened in a way because they hear "city" and they think, "They are going to take us into their city and make us follow their rules," Nadeen Zeidan, 18, reasoned.

'They're just not educated, and they don't really know, so it's like, when you know things, you're kind of scared of them. I think when people are educated and they're friends with people who are Muslim, they warm up to it.'

While the young women don't live in the surrounding neighborhood, they travel to EPIC to study at the coffee shop and walk over to the mosque when it's time for prayer.

They called the ability to live near the mosque a 'convenience.'

'It's not like it's just for Muslims. Anyone can live there. The majority are Muslim,' Fatmeh Zeidan, 19, explained.

'Just because it's right next to the mosque. Just like I feel like a lot of people who go to church, they try to live by the church so they can go often. They can walk there, it's like close by to them,' Nadeen added.

In Islam, the requirement to pray five times a day is a pillar of their faith, especially for men who expected to pray at a mosque when possible.

It's the reason Alia Hayat, 80, and her husband moved from Houston to Plano in 2019 to live one street away from EPIC.

'This is a very expensive area. Everybody cannot afford to live in this house, but we sacrificed to live in this area because we want to be close to the mosque,' the grandmother explained.

When they first moved, they were in better health, she explained, and could walk to EPIC.

Hayat, originally from Pakistan, doesn't go to EPIC as often she used to due to back pain, but she is still a part of a women's senior group at the mosque.

She's concern about recent online posts where the addresses of mosque leaders have been posted online to intimidate them.

'It hurts us know that people are getting the wrong idea, but I mean, we can pray. Whatever wrong conception they got, it is nothing like that,' Hayat said.

If EPIC City is ever constructed, Hayat explained she believes a big draw will be the adhan-- a loudspeaker or min prayer that announces the call to prayer.

'You cannot hear it in America. You don't have any place where you can hear the adhan. So you know, you just go there and you hear it and it just increases our faith,' she shared.

But the idea of a minaret blaring Arabic music is exactly what scares residents of the town of Josephine-- where EPIC City is planned.

'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,' resident Susan Martinez told the commission.

She also shared that her small community of 2,000 people is already dealing with water restrictions, even without any new construction.

'Last summer, we did not only lose water pressure, we ran out of water one day because a construction site had left water on by mistake.'