{"id":281713,"date":"2026-05-06T20:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/281713\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:03:15","slug":"abbott-threatens-grand-prairies-funding-over-muslim-water-park-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/281713\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott threatens Grand Prairie’s funding over Muslim water park event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas\u00a0Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> is threatening to pull hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding from Grand Prairie if the city allows its water park to host a private party for Muslims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Epic Waters, the city-owned park, is set to host a June 1 celebration for Eid al-Adha<\/a>, an Islamic holy day. Fliers for the event circulated on social media in recent days, prompting a backlash among conservatives and social media influencers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement posted Wednesday on X, Abbott gave the city a deadline of May 11 to cancel the event or lose $530,000 in state funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s religious discrimination,\u201d Abbott wrote on X. \u201cIt\u2019s unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott pointed to a law he signed last year that targeted the business structure behind The Meadow, a planned Muslim-centric neighborhood about 40\u00a0miles northeast of Dallas,\u00a0previously called Epic City<\/a>. It is not clear if and how that law applies to private events.<\/p>\n

Fliers initially described the\u00a0event as for “Muslims only,” with a modest dress code and private prayer area. Aminah Knight, a Dallas-area mother of six who is hosting the event, said she did not intend to exclude anyone and later revised the flier to say “All are welcome.”<\/p>\n

This is the third year Knight has hosted the party, which is expected to draw about 600 people.<\/p>\n

“As Muslims, we have a modest dress code. Going to a water park can be a challenge,” Knight said.\u00a0“This is a way to have fun and make sure our children and community feel seen.”<\/p>\n

Grand Prairie city spokesman Eric Alvarez did not immediately respond to an email from\u00a0The Dallas Morning News seeking a response. The city said in a statement Tuesday that it was aware of concerns surrounding the event and has been in contact with the park to ensure all policies and procedures were followed.<\/p>\n

Epic Waters is owned by the city and managed by a third party. The park opened in 2017 after voters approved a 0.25% sales tax. The park is available for rent by outside individuals and groups, beginning at $5,000 an hour.<\/p>\n

Abbott has increasingly used funding as leverage, adopting a strategy favored by President Donald Trump<\/a>, who has repeatedly threatened to pull funds from states and cities whose policies did not align with his administration.<\/p>\n

In response, Dallas revised its rules<\/a> to allow officers to ask people lawfully detained or arrested about their immigration status, work with federal immigration authorities and share immigration-status information with them.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas\u00a0Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to pull hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding from Grand Prairie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,89512,89138,103844,89217],"class_list":["post-281713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-grand-prairie","tag-tp-tarrant-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}