The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on Friday that it has launched an investigation into the East Plano Islamic Center, a Texas-based organization that is trying to build a planned community for Muslims outside of Dallas.
The department cites marketing materials for the 402-acre development, previously known as EPIC City and now billed as “The Meadow,” which promoted it as a “Muslim community” that would be “the epicenter of Islam in America.”
HUD Secretary Scott Turner stated that “it is deeply concerning that the East Plano Islamic Center may have violated the Fair Housing Act and participated in religious discrimination. … I will not stand for illegal religious or national origin discrimination in housing and will ensure that this matter receives a thorough investigation so that this community is open to all Texans.”
The department also points to “discriminatory financial terms” requiring lot owners in the development to fund a mosque and Islamic education centers.
The Fair Housing Act bars home providers from discriminating against buyers or renters on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, familial status or national origin.”
The U.S. Department of Justice closed a similar investigation in June after receiving assurances from the developers that the community would not discriminate against non-Muslims and that it would revise its marketing materials.
The EPIC City development has stoked political controversy in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed legislation in September aiming to block the project. (JNS sought comment from the East Plano Islamic Center and the project developers.)
Democrats have accused Republicans of using religious bigotry to drum up votes in the state’s upcoming elections.
“Federal, state and local candidates are trying to outdo one another with anti-Sharia, anti-Muslim sentiment in order to score political points,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said at a recent congressional hearing on Sharia law in America. “In the words of one Texas Republican political strategist, the Muslim community is the bogeyman for this cycle.”
The Islamic center’s Imam, Nadim Bashir, told The New York Times in April that the project “will always work within the laws of the United States and the state of Texas.”
