Islamic scholar who called US 'stolen land' promotes 400-acre Muslim community open to 'non-Americans'
Who is EPIC?
Located in the Dallas suburb of Plano, EPIC opened in July 2015 as a nonprofit “formed exclusively for educational, religious, and social purposes” and bills itself as a “a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual, non-sectarian, diverse, and open community committed to full and equal participation and involvement of men and women who are community members of EPIC and subscribe to accept its rules, regulations, and procedures.”
Qadhi, 50, was born in Houston and educated in Saudi Arabia before he joined EPIC as a resident scholar in July 2019, where, according to EPIC’s website, “all of its activities are in accordance with the teachings of the Quran and following the teachings and traditions” of Mohammed, whom Muslims believe was a prophet.
Well known among the Muslim community and with millions of followers on social media, Qadhi, who also studied at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, and at Yale University, has played a key role in the promotion of the EPIC project: he’s said the latest offering, EPIC Ranches, is a “limited time opportunity” which aims to “change the entire dawah scene by showing the world what it means to be a Muslim living in the West.”
In Islam, dawah is described by the Christian apologetics website Got Questions as the “Islamic equivalent" to Christian evangelism.
Last November, Qadhi criticized Americans for celebrating Thanksgiving, a holiday which he described as “rooted in Native American genocide,” while supporting the state of Israel and its “brutal oppression” of Palestinians.
“A nation built on stolen land, now enabling the theft of another’s,” wrote Qadhi about the U.S. government's support of Israel.
As part of an October 2020 sermon at EPIC, Qadhi called the beheading of French school teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed outside his school after showing his class cartoons of Mohammed during a debate on free expression, an “unfortunate incident.”
In 2021, EPIC co-hosted an event with CAIR Texas in support of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman serving an 86-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2010 on charges that she sought to shoot U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier.
Following a lecture he gave in 2013 at the Al Maghrib Institute in Houston in which he allegedly described both Christians and Jews as “filth,” Qadhi issued a statement in which he denied making such comments, adding that his statements were taken out of context.
“Never have I claimed that Christians need to be prevented from practicing Christianity, or that they are filthy,” he wrote. “This is truly a preposterous claim, as even the most basic exposure to Islamic law would demonstrate that non-Muslims are allowed to worship according to their doctrines in an Islamic state.”
Last August, Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), gave a speech at EPIC in which he detailed a plan to create an “army” of Muslim Americans to run for public office.
According to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Awad said, “creating an ‘army’ of 50,000 journalists, lawyers, and members of the academia, who will potentially run for public office, can create 40-50 Muslim members of the U.S. Congress in 10 years.”
Awad also said that because “Islamophobia is deep-rooted in American culture, in Hollywood, and literature and that this influences public policies,” CAIR has “been working to eliminate and change textbooks in public schools that portray” Islam and Mohammed “negatively.”
In 2007, federal prosecutors named CAIR as "unindicted co-conspirators and/or joint venturers" in a criminal conspiracy to support Hamas financially. In 2008, the FBI ended contacts with CAIR because of concern with its continuing terrorist ties.
Governor responds: ‘not allowed in Texas’
While EPIC organizers maintain the proposed community would follow all local, state, and federal laws, Gov. Greg Abbott shared a statement on X in response to a promo video of the EPIC community in which he appeared to dismiss EPIC’s plan becoming a reality.
Abbott wrote: “To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are ‘no go zones’ which this project seems to imply. Bottom line: The project as proposed in the video is not allowed in Texas.”
In response, an X account named Epic Ranches replied, “Governor Abbott, our vision is to build a diverse, safe, and inclusive community — one in which people of every background, faith, and culture can live together in harmony. It should go without saying that our community, like any other in this great state, will follow all local, state, and federal laws. We would love for you to see the site and learn about our project over some Hutchins BBQ.”
With an estimated Muslim population of over 313,000, Texas has one of the largest Muslim communities in the U.S., with nearly 150,000 Muslim residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
Wayne Slay, senior pastor of First Baptist Josephine, leads a small church of about 200 members located about a mile and a half from the land EPIC is planning to purchase and develop. Slay says while his congregation is aware of the plan, he’s told by local realtors that the deal is far from done.
“I'm not too worried about it as far as happening right now,” Slay told CP on Wednesday. “We've got other issues in our community, probably that are more important than that right now.”
And if the day ever comes when crews break ground on the project, Slay says his congregation will be focused on preaching the Gospel, not political rallies.
We're not going to be, you know, radical anti-whatever, because I just don't think that works,” he said. “That's just my personal opinion. … Evangelicals have made some big mistakes by being so pro politics that they've isolated themselves from the people we're trying to reach. And I've seen pastors do this. I've seen other people do this.
“You know, our goal is not to isolate these people. Our goal is to love them with the love of Jesus and create a desire in them to know why we love them like we do.”
