This comes months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the development.
PLANO, Texas — The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the launching of an investigation Friday into the developers behind the East Plano Islamic Center, two months after Texas launched its own investigation.
HUD is accusing the development of potentially violating the Fair Housing Act by “engaging in religious and national origin discrimination.”
“It is deeply concerning the East Plano Islamic Center may have violated the Fair Housing Act and participated in religious discrimination,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement. “As HUD Secretary, I will not stand for illegal religious or national origin discrimination in housing and will ensure that this matter receives a thorough investigation so that this community is open to all Texans.”
According to HUD, the Texas Workforce Commission sent the department a complaint accusing EPIC’s developers of religious discriminatory conduct, including marketing materials promoting EPIC as exclusively a “Muslim community” and that it would be “the epicenter of Islam in America,” as well as reportedly discriminatory financial terms requiring lot owners to subsidize Islamic educational centers and a mosque.
However, EPIC’s developers have previously said they are not trying to build a “Sharia compound,” governed by religious rules.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the development in December, accusing them of violating securities laws.
“The leaders behind EPIC City have engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets,” Paxton said in a statement in December. “I will relentlessly bring the full force of the law against anyone who thinks they can ignore the rules and hurt Texans. The unlawful land project known as EPIC City will be stopped, and those responsible will be barred from ever creating another fraudulent operation like this again.”