Another Proposed Muslim Development in North Texas Arouses Controversy, Confusion

Controversy over Muslim real estate developments is buffeting the region from east and west. About the time a statewide uproar over the East Plano Islamic Center project was easing, plans for a subdivision with a name that included the term “Muslim” ignited an uproar in rural Parker County near Weatherford on the other side of Fort Worth.

What happened was that back in April, an item showed up on the agenda for Parker’s Commissioners Court requesting final approval of a plat for the second phase of a roughly 4.5-acre subdivision to be called Muslims United for Progress. Approval of the first phase had gone unnoticed in February.

This time, however, word of the plan was picked up by people concerned about another EPIC-like development. Concern was boosted on social media by the likes of Carlos Turcios, head of the Tarrant County Republican Party community involvement committee. In an X post shared nearly 3,000 times, Turcios shared information about the upcoming approval and declared: “Radical Sharia Law Centers are being constructed EVERYWHERE! Why is this happening in TEXAS?!”

Turcios noted the project would cover 4.448 acres, but other social media users misread it as 4,000 acres. The genesis of his idea that Muslims United for Progress would be a radical Sharia law center was less clear. In an email to the Observer, Turcios said, “My concerns were that this would be another development similar to EPIC City, which made national headlines. Islamic Sharia law cities/communities have been a concern for Republicans in Texas. Sharia Law developments do not follow our constitution or respect America.”

Once planted, the idea that a huge Islamic community enforcing Sharia law was coming to rural Texas took root and flourished. “Must be stopped at all costs,” was one typical social media comment, this one by Alexander Duncan, a California transplant who lives in the unincorporated community of Peaster, where the subdivision is located, and is running for U.S. Senate on a platform emphasizing Second Amendment rights.

The Parker County Commissioners Court unexpectedly faced a small crowd of impassioned opponents at its April 28 meeting. Some of the statements made face-to-face were as confrontational as the ones that appeared online. Commissioners voted to table the matter until the next meeting.

At the meeting, Commissioner Jacob Holt, in whose precinct the subdivision was located, expressed some confusion about the opposition. He explained that the people who submitted the application had lived there on 45 acres since 1985 and were well-regarded. In addition, he noted, rather than envisioning a Sharia law center, they planned to construct a handful of homes for other family members. Holt did not respond to questions from the Observer.

Jennifer Twait, who runs a business called Bark Place Texas on the same road as the property, said she learned of the proposal on social media and was initially concerned about the effect a 4,000-plus acre development would have on the local water table. After further checking revealed the project’s true size and that the plan was only for a few homes, her concern abated. “I am 100% fine with this being approved,” Twait said, adding, “Last time I checked, this is a free country and these are normal, law-abiding citizens of the United States.”

So what about Muslims United for Progress? Reached by phone, Lydia Abdullah, the wife of the organization’s former president, said they were not expecting the intense pushback their proposal received. “It really was something we felt was totally unnecessary, uncalled for and probably pushed by people who have no idea who we are,” she said. “We’ve been here for 40 years. We’ve raised our children out here. We have neighbors and friends out here. It was totally blown out of proportion.”

Muslims United for Progress is a group of families that moved to the area decades ago and has no connection with EPIC, Abdullah stressed. They plan to build a few homes, but nothing more. “Us trying to form a community that practices a form of Sharia law and not observe the laws of this country – it’s totally unbelievable,” she said. “We’re all born and raised in this country and go back generations.”

Abdullah doubts anyone familiar with the area would have given credence to the idea of such a massive development in their hamlet, estimated population of 100. “Four thousand acres would be the whole town of Peaster,” she said. “We knew it had to be people who did not know us and heard this misinformation and ran with it.”

In the end, the information was clarified enough that, at the May 12 commissioner’s meeting, the subdivision was approved without opposition. Muslims United for Progress is free to proceed with its plans, and Abdullah says they plan to do that.

In retrospect, she says that the word “Muslims” in the project’s name was a key element, combined with a lack of familiarity with Islam and heightened concern raised by EPIC. A similar plat request for a 2.492-acre “Church of God Campground” at the May Parker County commissioners meeting excited no opposition.

In addition to digging foundations and building roads, Abdullah says the eight families who comprise the Muslims United for Progress community today have discussed doing outreach to familiarize more Texans with Islam. “If anything good comes out of this, that’s what it would be,” she said. “We can tear down some of the walls of ignorance that have created the idea that because we’re Muslims, we have created a threat, which is so not true.”