North Texas’ proposed EPIC City development became a focal point Wednesday in a U.S. Senate hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood’s domestic network, with one witness describing it as the “American version” of an “Islamist separatism” pattern that European governments have warned against.
Arielle F. Klepach, senior litigation counsel for the National Jewish Advocacy Center, made the comparison in written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) chaired the hearing, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America.”
“The American version of this pattern is EPIC City, a residential community project in North Texas, designed to be an exclusively Muslim city and branded as ‘the epicenter of Islam in America,’” Klepach wrote.
The project, now called The Meadow, would include more than 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and other facilities on roughly 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties near Josephine.
Community Capital Partners has said the development will follow state and federal law, welcome people of all faiths and operate as a lawful residential community. The project has not broken ground.
North Texas project enters national debate
Klepach compared the development to European “mega-mosque” projects that combine religious, educational and social services.
Her testimony cited British warnings that some such projects can reduce residents’ reliance on public institutions and isolate communities from the surrounding society.
She also cited four pending Texas cases involving the project and wrote that CAIR-Texas and CAIR-DFW had defended EPIC City while CAIR national leaders had spoken at the East Plano Islamic Center.
Klepach called that an “active advocacy relationship” between CAIR and the EPIC religious community.
Her testimony did not identify the East Plano Islamic Center or Community Capital Partners as a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.
Instead, she argued that the proposed development resembles a broader community-building pattern and cited CAIR’s advocacy as part of the comparison.