Sen. John Cornyn calls on Justice Department to probe proposed planned Muslim community

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Monday called on top Department of Justice officials to investigate a planned Muslim community that risks religious discrimination of Christians, Jews and other non-Muslim minorities.

The proposed East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) in Josephine, Texas, is already being investigated by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican.

“A master-planned ‘community of thousands of Muslims’ could violate the constitutional rights of Jewish and Christian Texans, by preventing them from living in this new community and discriminating against them within the community,” Mr. Cornyn, a Republican who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights.

“I further encourage the Department to investigate whether Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslim minorities would receive equal protection under the law in this new community,” he wrote. “Religious discrimination, whether explicit or implicit, is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Religious freedom is a cornerstone of our nation’s values, and I am concerned this community potentially undermines this vital protection.”

The Washington Times reached out to the East Plano Islamic Center for comment.

Mr. Cornyn said the East Plano Islamic Center and the for-profit corporation it created to plan the community recently announced a development called “EPIC Ranches City” in Josephine. The community was envisioned as a “thriving ecosystem” of thousands of homes centered around a mosque and a private Islamic school, he said.

“The 402-acre community will also include commercial developments, a community college, and sports facilities. The Center is designed as an exclusive religious settlement where Islamic principles govern not only daily life and education, but commerce,” Mr. Cornyn wrote.

“Religious-based discrimination is a constitutional violation as well as a federal rights violation. Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that this community does not run afoul of these obligations,” the senator wrote.

He suggested that it would be appropriate to investigate whether the advocates of the proposed development are “abiding by existing federal and state prohibitions on the enforcement of sharia law.”

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, many European countries have dealt with the density of unassimilated foreign-born populations “with cultural attitudes and values found in religiously conservative Muslim communities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.”

Those values are expressed through adherence to Islamic law and expectations related to how women present themselves and behave, despite the fact that Islamic law often contradicts with the laws of the host nation, CIS says.

The Times reached out to the Justice Department for comment.