North Texas’ proposed EPIC City development became a focal point Wednesday in a U.S. Senate hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood’s domestic network, with one witness describing it as the “American version” of an “Islamist separatism” pattern that European governments have warned against.
Arielle F. Klepach, senior litigation counsel for the National Jewish Advocacy Center, made the comparison in written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) chaired the hearing, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America.”
“The American version of this pattern is EPIC City, a residential community project in North Texas, designed to be an exclusively Muslim city and branded as ‘the epicenter of Islam in America,’” Klepach wrote.
The project, now called The Meadow, would include more than 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and other facilities on roughly 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties near Josephine.
Community Capital Partners has said the development will follow state and federal law, welcome people of all faiths and operate as a lawful residential community. The project has not broken ground.
North Texas project enters national debate
Klepach compared the development to European “mega-mosque” projects that combine religious, educational and social services.
Her testimony cited British warnings that some such projects can reduce residents’ reliance on public institutions and isolate communities from the surrounding society.
She also cited four pending Texas cases involving the project and wrote that CAIR-Texas and CAIR-DFW had defended EPIC City while CAIR national leaders had spoken at the East Plano Islamic Center.
Klepach called that an “active advocacy relationship” between CAIR and the EPIC religious community.
Her testimony did not identify the East Plano Islamic Center or Community Capital Partners as a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.
Instead, she argued that the proposed development resembles a broader community-building pattern and cited CAIR’s advocacy as part of the comparison.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has challenged the project through multiple lawsuits and an appeal involving the Texas Workforce Commission.
The developers have accused the state of religious discrimination and pledged to continue through the legal and regulatory process.
Collin County mosque debate intensifies
The Senate hearing came amid an intensifying Collin County debate over Sharia and the growth of Islamic institutions.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, GainPeace Director Dr. Sabeel Ahmed told visitors at a July 18 open house at the Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano that Sharia was “already here.”
Ahmed said he meant Muslims already practice Sharia through voluntary religious duties, not as a replacement for American law.
One night before the hearing, the McKinney City Council voted 7-0 to approve a site plan for a 32,573-square-foot mosque and Islamic center after more than 150 people signed up to speak.
U.S. Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) warned council members about “political Islam,” while city officials said the revised plan complied with existing zoning and left the council legally constrained to approve it.
The vote did not authorize construction; the project still requires a minor plat and additional permits.
Dallas network history resurfaces
Lara Burns, a retired FBI special agent who led the Holy Land Foundation investigation from 2001 through 2008, traced the network’s history directly to Dallas in her written testimony.
Burns wrote that the Islamic Association for Palestine’s Dallas information office published an Arabic newspaper during the First Intifada that promoted Hamas-related calls for support and jihad, followed by advertisements soliciting donations to the Holy Land Foundation.
A federal jury convicted the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation and five of its leaders in 2008 for providing material support to Hamas.
The Justice Department said the foundation and its leaders sent approximately $12.4 million to Hamas-controlled committees and organizations.
“For decades, narratives have been intentionally seeded into public discourse that portray terrorist organizations as resistance movements,” Burns told senators, adding that Americans cannot “ignore evidence introduced in federal court simply because that evidence is politically uncomfortable.”
“The history of this network is not in question,” Burns said. “It was made public decades ago, but few paid attention. Now is the time to pay attention and understand the facts.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Treasury and State departments designated the Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist entities in January for supporting Hamas. Those federal actions applied only to the named foreign branches.
Democrats boycott hearing
All five Democratic members of the subcommittee boycotted Wednesday’s hearing. “You may notice that there are empty chairs on the Democrat side of the dais,” Cruz said. “The American people should ask themselves why not a single member of the minority decided that a hearing on terrorism was worth their time? It is an embarrassment.”
U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Alex Padilla (D-California) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) accused Cruz of targeting Muslims in a joint statement.
“Scapegoating Muslims may be a Texas Republican strategist’s idea of ‘solid gold’ to whip up their voters, but Democrats have no intention of indulging this political creepshow, particularly after the recent violence targeting places of faith,” the senators said.
CAIR applauded the boycott and called the hearing “an exercise in manufacturing suspicion of American Muslims rather than addressing any genuine threat.”
Klepach urged Congress to close what she called a successor-organization loophole and require nonprofits to disclose the amount and origin of foreign donations.
Kyle Shideler, senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, urged senators to demand a classified assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood’s current U.S. operations.
Provided by Dallas Express
