Muslim community EPIC City hires lawyer amid Texas investigations
(NewsNation) — A legal battle is brewing between a planned Muslim-centric community and the state of Texas.
In 2024, the East Plano Islamic Center mosque announced plans to build a 400-acre community near Josephine, Texas. The project, named EPIC City, would contain about 1,000 homes, a K-12 faith-based school, shops, a community college and a mosque.
'Our vision is rooted in creating a safe and purpose-built environment that fosters growth, connection, and prosperity for all who call EPIC City home,' its official website reads. EPIC City is not exclusively for Muslims.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has launched more than a dozen state investigations against the development, claiming that EPIC City officials want to impose Sharia law within the community.
EPIC City developers said that is simply not true, and its newly-hired attorney Dan Cogdell has called the state's opposition to the community flat out 'racial profiling.'
'If this were a Presbyterian church in Red Oak or a Catholic church in Waxahachie, we wouldn't be having this conversation,' he said on Friday's airing of 'Morning in America.'
'It's because they're Muslim. It's just that simple,' Cogdell added.
Cogdell told NewsNation the community does not intend to impose Sharia law as the state of Texas accuses.
'They have no intentions of that. There are 7,000-10,000 that attend the current mosque. There are lawyers, judges, doctors, politicians that attend that church,' he said. 'It's just absurd that that allegation is even being made at this point.'
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Abbott is demanding the developers behind EPIC City stop construction at the planned community within a week.
An April 1 press release from the governor said 'the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found that the East Plano Islamic Center and affiliated entities have not obtained the required authorizations or permits needed for construction.'
Those permits are a non-issue, as 'they haven't even started construction,' according to Cogdell.
'Right now, the property is a cow field. I mean, what are the rangers trying to look for? A cow paddy? There are no dead bodies there, there is no meth lab there,' he previously told NewsNation. 'It's an empty pasture in north Texas.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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