Mosque at center of Muslim mega city issues blistering response to critics after police launched investigation

After weeks of fury and absorption implicit a Texas mosque and its plans to physique a Muslim metropolis extracurricular of Dallas, mosque leaders are speaking out, claiming mosque members are facing violence.

The East Plano Islamic Center oregon EPIC has lawyered up, hiring a 'high-profile attorney' to assistance them instrumentality connected the Republican politician who has accused the mosque of breaking the law.

EPIC, a sprawling location of worship located successful Plano, Texas has precocious go a people for Gov. Greg Abbott over its plans to physique a metropolis for Muslims- called EPIC City- successful a agrarian country astir 30 minutes from the existing mosque.

Even though nary arrests oregon charges person been made, Abbott has repeatedly claimed EPIC is breaking the instrumentality and has ordered some transgression and civilian investigations into the mosque and its planned community.

'We are regularly receiving hatred calls and decease threats,' EPIC's committee of directors said successful a statement posted to Facebook Thursday.

'Our mosque leaders' idiosyncratic location addresses person been shared, jeopardizing the information of families.' 

EPIC denies it's breached the instrumentality successful immoderate mode and claimed that 'its doors stay unfastened to anyone.'

Meanwhile, the mosque's caller lawyer held a property league Wednesday lasting successful beforehand of elephantine blow-ups of the governor's galore accusation-filed tweets against the mosque.

Monday, the politician demanded the mosque to halt operation of EPIC City oregon look the 'full value of the law' successful an online station to X.

'Perhaps the politician and his unit aren't xenophobic,' Attorney Dan Cogdell lashed out.

'Perhaps they're conscionable plain ignorant oregon take to beryllium ignorant, but spoiler alert, they haven't adjacent started construction. They haven't adjacent applied for the permits. For him to say, "Stop it, oregon the afloat value of the instrumentality volition travel down connected you...it's conscionable utter nonsense. It's insane."'

However, EPIC is facing an uphill conflict to get permits from some Collin and Hunt counties-- wherever the onshore they ain sits adjacent Josephine, Texas.

In bid for them to crook the 402 acres of fields into a metropolis with a marque caller mosque serving arsenic the municipality halfway 1,000 caller homes, schools and a buying center, some counties volition person to motion off.

Opponents of EPIC flooded a nationalist gathering Monday successful hopes of stopping a arguable Islamic compound from getting indispensable permits to statesman construction.

For hours, the Collin County Commissioners Court heard dozens of speakers pleading with them to contradict the permits needed to physique whats been called 'the epicenter of Islam successful America' by organizers.

Many residents of the 2,000-person municipality of Josephine voiced their concerns, though the Islamic improvement is extracurricular the metropolis limits.  

'They privation to instal a large system, a talker system, that would blast their euphony to telephone them to prayer, and they could bash it arsenic agelong arsenic they wanted to due to the fact that they specifically take a tract conscionable extracurricular the metropolis truthful they tin bash that,' Susan Martinez told the commission. 

She besides shared that her small, agrarian assemblage is already dealing with h2o restrictions, adjacent without immoderate caller construction.

Gov. Abbott has repeatedly claimed that the metropolis volition present extremist sharia instrumentality practices to Texas, which would govern religion, matrimony and punishment for crime. 

Practicing Sharia instrumentality is amerciable successful the Lone Star State. 

'We are uncovering ineligible violations by EPIC City that spell acold beyond what radical realize,' Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted.

'The projected assemblage volition ne'er spot the airy of day. More to come.' 

Abbott alleges the mosque broke the instrumentality by operating arsenic a ceremonial home. 

'They are knowingly breaking authorities instrumentality successful galore ways, including by operating a ceremonial location without a license,' Abbott posted to X past week.

'This is simply a crime, and it volition not beryllium tolerated.'

A cease and desist went out, ordering the mosque to halt preparing bodies for burial, and Abbott asked the section territory lawyer to prosecute transgression charges.  

Abbott has directed aggregate authorities agencies to look into imaginable crimes successful hopes of stopping the planned assemblage adjacent Josephine, Texas.

'Quit tweeting lies, mendacious accusation and nonsense, due to the fact that my clients close now, what they are doing is suffering from fundamentally gubernatorial hatred speech, Cogdell added.

'They are acrophobic for their lives due to the fact that of the falsehoods that the governor's bureau has started.'   Even if Abbott is palmy successful stopping the caller development, EPIC already has a large footprint successful Plano.

The immense mosque is surrounded by schools and a gym. 

Across the street, determination is besides an concern called 'EPIC Market' and halal shops catering to the Muslims that unrecorded successful the streets astir the mosque.

The large, 2 communicative luxury homes with costly cars successful the thrust ways were each decorated for Ramadan, with Christmas lights utilized to observe the beatified period of fasting. 

In what could beryllium a cardinal ballot for EPIC City's future, Collin County Commissioners volition determine whether to o.k. a licence connected April 14.