Earlier this year, Governor Greg Abbott (R) said the 402-acre East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) land development project, located about 40 miles northeast of Dallas, would likely remain an empty field, without the 1,000+ homes, Islamic school, and mosque mapped out to fill the space.
Senator John Cornyn (R) and others had prompted a federal probe over concerns that EPIC City might unlawfully limit housing access to Muslim residents or impose Sharia law, but the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) formally ended that investigation in June, with officials confirming that the project's developers, Community Capital Partners (CCP), had made it clear the community would be inclusive and marketed under the Fair Housing Act.
Residents may privately choose to live by Sharia law, but the community would be governed by Texas state law, U.S. federal law, and local regulations, they said.
The DOJ found no legal grounds to proceed further, but multiple state-level investigations continue.
Now Attorney General Ken Paxton says it is clear that the developers behind EPIC City "flagrantly and undeniably violated the law."
"In the course of the investigation, the OAG identified evidence that CCP violated federal and state securities laws and regulations, including both procedural violations and fraudulent conduct," Paxton's letter to the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) explains.
In order to sue and hold the "bad actors behind this illegal scheme" accountable, his office must receive a referral from the TSSB.
"You'd have to look at the contract that every person had to sign when they put their down payment into EPIC City," notes Krista Schild, Texas director for the RAIR Foundation USA. "The contract reads that it was a non-refundable down payment no matter what happens. That should violate fair housing laws, and it does."
She says people put $80,000 down before they owned the property that can never be sold because it is an investment.
"There will never be a real estate sign on that property if you should decide to move out," Schild explains. "It will be a transaction that's done, a transfer … through the mosque with approval of the leadership of the mosque determining who takes your place."
That would have to be somebody who is adherent to the mosque because the other part of that contract is they must pay 2.5% of their wealth, which is the zakat to the community's Islamic center.
As Schild points out, at least an eighth of that zakat funds terrorism.
A new state law requires clear disclosure that buyers are purchasing an interest in a company, not real property, and prohibits managing entities from imposing restrictions on transfers or charging fees for resales.
The governor has said it is an anti-Sharia law measure and that no one can forcibly create segregated "no-go zones" in Texas.
In short, Schild says those involved with EPIC City like to brag that they follow the law, but when they get caught breaking it, they play the victim and claim discrimination.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom, but several points of Sharia law are incompatible with the supreme law of the land. For example, some interpretations of Sharia violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by institutionalizing discrimination based on sex.
