Outrage is boiling in North Texas after the McKinney City Council voted 7-0 to greenlight a major new Islamic center complex, brushing aside hours of public testimony that included a direct warning from an Iranian Christian who fled Sharia law.
Citizens packed City Hall for a marathon session that stretched past midnight. More than 150 people signed up to speak. The approved site plan covers roughly 5.5 acres at Virginia Parkway and Crutcher Crossing. It includes a 15,000-square-foot sanctuary, a 10,000-square-foot classroom building, and a 7,000-square-foot gym for the McKinney Islamic Association, which says its existing facility has been outgrown.
City staff insisted the revised plan met every zoning requirement with no variances, leaving the council little legal room to deny it. Council members framed the vote as purely procedural. Residents who showed up in force saw something far larger at stake.
? NOW: Outrage is ERUPTING after McKinney, Texas council votes to APPROVE a large Islamic Center
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 9, 2026
Countless citizens stormed the meeting to oppose it, including an Iranian Christian migrant who SURVIVED Sharia Law
"I'm a Sharia law survivor from Iran, an I'm here to tell you,… pic.twitter.com/j8VLFzv8tY
One of the most powerful moments came from an Iranian Christian migrant who identified himself as a Sharia law survivor. “I’m a Sharia law survivor from Iran, an I’m here to tell you, this is a dangerous ideology you’re allowing in the country,” he told the council.
Other residents voiced similar fears. “They forced their way into countries and forced their religion,” one said. Another warned the project “may become a base where young men and women will be taught and trained to overthrow this great nation, a threat for which my forefathers fought with their own blood to build for the liberty of its citizens.”
Attention also focused on the association’s imam, Sheikh Mohammed Ajabali (also referred to as Mohamed AlGebaly), who holds a leadership role with the Islamic Tribunal of the Dallas area.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has examined the tribunal, stating that the group has sought to replace actual courts of law, impose Sharia on disputes among Texas Muslims, and falsely represent its decisions as final judgments with the approval of the Texas judicial system.
State Rep. Keresa Richardson urged the council to pause action pending that investigation. U.S. Rep. Keith Self, who represents the area, told the room: “Child marriage, honor killings, don’t tell me that can’t happen here. There is no state cavalry coming to save you.” He added that the freedom to choose one’s faith “does not exist in political Islam.”
Supporters of the project stressed religious liberty, the association’s long presence in McKinney, and compliance with city rules. Association president Yasser Wardany said the group had redesigned the plan multiple times in response to earlier feedback and remained “committed to being a good neighbor.” Some council members pushed back against the intensity of the opposition, calling elements of it election-year rhetoric. The vote still went through unanimously.
This fits a clear and accelerating pattern across North Texas that has already drawn intense scrutiny from state leaders and local residents.
Earlier this year, Congressman Keith Self laid out how Sharia-adherent Muslim-only enclaves have already taken root. He pointed to the East Plano Islamic Center operating for more than a decade as a parallel society immediately adjacent to law enforcement facilities, with a similar pattern emerging in Irving.
“Sharia is alive, well, and operating in Plano, Texas,” Self said. “This is not a hypothetical or future threat. It is here, now and operational.” He described the placement next to police training facilities as intentional intimidation.
State authorities have also moved against unauthorized institutions. Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to issue an immediate cease-and-desist order against the so-called Texas American Muslim University in Richardson.
The operation had been marketing itself as the first U.S. university offering STEM degrees embedded with mandatory Islamic Studies courses while lacking any state authorization to grant degrees or even use the title “university.” Abbott made clear that illegal educational institutions would not be tolerated.
Public facilities have been pulled into the same orbit. A taxpayer-funded waterpark in Grand Prairie, built with tens of millions in public sales-tax money, advertised a “Muslim only” Eid event complete with burkini requirements, lowered-gaze rules, and other Islamic etiquette restrictions. Organizers later softened the public language after backlash, but the exclusionary character of the original promotion was unmistakable.
The same controversy intersects with the far larger “EPIC City” project, later rebranded The Meadow. The 400-acre master-planned development northeast of Dallas is designed to include more than 1,000 homes, a mosque, faith-based schools, commercial space, and related facilities.
Developers scored a legal win when a judge ordered a state agency to comply with prior agreements even as investigations by the Texas Workforce Commission, Attorney General Paxton, and federal partners continued.
Governor Abbott has repeatedly stated that Sharia law, Sharia cities, and “no-go zones” have no place in Texas. Residents and elected officials continue to warn that the project risks creating a parallel community structure.
McKinney’s approval lands against this backdrop. Local officials repeatedly insisted their hands were tied by zoning compliance and First Amendment considerations.
Residents who lived under actual Sharia systems, along with those watching the steady expansion of parallel institutions next to police facilities, private tribunals under investigation, unauthorized universities, and large-scale residential projects, see a different picture: incremental infrastructure for an ideology that does not accept equal standing under a single constitutional order.
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