Protesters hold signs opposing Sharia law is seen from the premises of the Islamic Association of Collin County on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Plano.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
It was quiet in the sister’s room of the Plano mosque Friday afternoon.
Women were praying, their heads bowed as young and old slowly filled the rows, kneeling on green stripes on the carpeted floor. The slow song of prayer filled the room.
Just outside the mosque’s walls, dozens of protestors gathered with signs reading “Don’t Mecca my Texas” and “Sharia brings no joy, no love, no peace.” Some carried guns and others large, billowing flags. One attendee held a sign brought from the previous night’s Republican convention in Dallas.
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A rally of about 50 people invited by the Lone Star Legionaries demonstrated against Islam. The group’s website says it’s committed to preserving “the history, heritage, culture and values that make Texas unique.”
Zeba Siddiqui was one of the dozens of women in peaceful prayer and came to the Friday service despite a warning of the demonstration nearby.
“I felt like we shouldn’t be afraid of it,” she said. “I felt like we should do what we normally do.”
Congregators gather outside following the Jummah prayer, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 at Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Protests outside the mosque are not an unusual sight for congregants in recent years as North Texas sees a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric. In McKinney, the approval of the site plan for a mosque contributed to a recall effort to oust half the City Council. In Frisco, a recent mayoral candidate compared Indian immigrants to rats and called Islam a “terrorist group.”
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Late last year, anti-Islam protesters gathered outside of a different mosque in Plano, organized by far-right activist and conservative influencer Jake Lang, who held a severed pig’s head and led a small crowd around the city with a banner reading “Americans against Islamification.”
The mosque sees about 1,500 people on any given day. It’s a busy meeting place for Muslims in the area like Siddiqui, who has lived near the mosque for nearly three decades.
Protesters hold signs opposing Sharia law outside the Islamic Association of Collin County on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Plano.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
“They’re protesting against Shariah law,” she said after the afternoon prayer service. “I don’t think they understand what that is, and I think they’re being fed a lot of propaganda about who we are and what it means to be Muslim…. because of that, I give them grace.”
Shariah is the moral and religious code in Islam that guides all aspects of Muslim life. Friday is a holy day in Islam, when congregations meet for midday prayers.
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The mosque had prepared for protests by notifying law enforcement and recruiting volunteers to patrol the area, said Akram Syed, president of the congregation, also called the Islamic Association of Collin County. Several police officers and congregants wearing security vests and speaking into walkie talkies patrolled the grounds.
Otherwise, Friday prayers and activities in the mosque continued as planned.
Supporters gather in solidarity with Muslims ahead of Jummah prayer on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at the Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
The building opened just months after 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when anti-Muslim sentiment spiked.
Islamophobia in Texas in recent years is different, said Syed, who has lived in the area since 1992.
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For the last three decades, he said his community did not receive much pushback.
“The rhetoric and the otherization, marginalization of certain people … This thing is very recent,” Syed said.
Brandon Burkhart, who organized the rally, drove about five hours from the Hill County to demonstrate against Islam. He said he wants to stop the spread of “terroristic ways … hiding behind a religion.”
“We’re not going to allow Shariah law to be taking effect here. We’re going to continue to fight this,” he said, standing outside the yellow caution tape marking the mosque’s property. “We’re trying to wake Texans up.”
Imam Sh. Chad Earl leads the khutbah during Jummah prayer on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at the Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Across from Burkhart’s group, about 40 counterprotesters held signs that read “Love thy neighbor” and “Unite, don’t divide.” The group was organized by the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response, CLEAR D-FW, an interfaith coalition which had supporters at other mosques Friday across North Texas.
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“We just want them to know that we care about them,” Almas Muscatwalla said.
Inside the mosque, Siddiqui hopes the protestors get to know real Muslim people to understand the religion better.
“The level of disrespect and insult that is tolerated these days,” she said, “I have not seen that in my lifetime here in this country.”
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