Texas Rangers ordered to investigate mosque behind planned Islamic compound
“Texas is a law-and-order state, and those scheming to evade law enforcement scrutiny must know justice is awaiting them,” Governor Abbot said in a statement.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate the mosque behind plans to build a 400-acre Islamic compound in rural Texas.
Abbott directed law enforcement to “fully investigate” the East Plano Islamic Center, or EPIC as well as any of its affiliates for “potentially violating criminal law.”
The compound, which is currently in the early stages of planning, would be a self-sustaining Islamic community featuring 1,000 homes, Islamic schools, a mosque, medical facilities, stores, and even a nursing home. Developers are just in the process of seeking permits to build in the 402-acre site.
It appears unclear which criminal violations authorities seek to expose, but the governor said that any such discoveries “will be brought to the appropriate prosecutorial authorities for further action.”
“Texas is a law-and-order state, and those scheming to evade law enforcement scrutiny must know justice is awaiting them,” Abbott explained in a statement. “That is why I directed the Texas Rangers to fully investigate the group behind the proposed EPIC compound for potentially violating criminal law. Texas will ensure that anyone affiliated with EPIC who is breaking the law is brought to justice.”
The probe into EPIC City is just the latest of a series of investigations into the Islamic organization.
Just last week, The Christian Post notes, Abbott announced that a dozen state entities are investigating EPIC and its affiliates, including the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas State Securities Board, and the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
Residents expressed concerns over the EPIC City project at a public meeting this week, where one community member said she believes many are afraid to speak out over fears of being labeled “racist” or not “inclusive,” but that the proposed community project appeared to be quite “exclusive.”
“Why else would they want their own community? What is the purpose of them having their own community?” she asked.
Another woman was less concerned with “inclusion,” pointing to her bottom line that the United States is a Christian country.
“We’re very compassionate people and we’re very kind, but at some point, we gotta draw the line and say, ‘This nation and this state was built and founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there is only one God and one Father in this country,” she said.
Multiple residents pointed to the fact that the community will play the Islamic call to prayer five times a day, which will be overheard by those beyond the compound.
“Our neighborhood has been listening to their videos trying to recruit people to purchase and invest for quite a while now, many, many months,” one woman explained. “One of the first videos we heard was that they wanted to install a loud system, a speaker system, that would blast their music to call them to prayer and they could do it as loud as they wanted to because they specifically chose this site outside of the city so they could do that.
“My question is, why do they have to build a compound? Why not just build a mosque? Why not become our neighbors, go to our schools?” she continued.