In most circumstances, the development of a 400-acre field of corn and hay outsideJosephine, Texas, would hardly stand out in the state, just another parcel of farmland set to become houses in the ever-expanding sprawl of the Dallas suburbs.
Yet in recent months, Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown himself into stopping the planned community. The reason? It would be anchored by a mosque.
“To be clear, Shariah law is not allowed in Texas,” the Republican governor wrote on social media in late February, reposting a video advertising the project. “Nor are Shariah cities.”
Nearly a quarter century has passed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised anti-Muslim sentiment around the country, often under the banner of fighting Islamic law, or Shariah. It has been 15 years since politicians in New York and Washington fanned the furor over a proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan near where the Twin Towers fell.
Over that time, the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has swelled by more than 60 percent, to around 8.3 million. Its growth has included a diverse influx of new Texans from all over the world, many of them Muslim, but also Hindu, Christian and Jewish.
But Josephine’s master-planned community of about 1,000 homes proposed by members of the East Plano Islamic Center, known as EPIC, has shown how old sentiments can linger.
