{"id":282443,"date":"2026-05-07T06:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/282443\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:09:15","slug":"texas-city-scraps-muslim-only-waterpark-event-after-gov-abbott-threatened-to-yank-state-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/282443\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas city scraps “Muslim only” waterpark event after Gov. Abbott threatened to yank state funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas city scrapped a \u201cMuslim only\u201d holiday event<\/a> hosted by an Islamic group at a taxpayer-funded waterpark hours after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull state funding if it went forward. <\/p>\n

Grand Prairie city officials axed the upcoming Eid event at Epic Indoor Park Wednesday night, shortly after the Republican warned Mayor Ron Jensen that the state would yank $530,000 in public safety grants if the gathering \u2014 initially advertised as \u201cexclusively reserved for Muslims\u201d \u2014 wasn\u2019t shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter further review and in the best interest of the City of Grand Prairie, the June 1 Eid event at Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has been canceled,\u201d a city spokesperson told The Post in a statement.<\/p>\n

Earlier Wednesday, Abbott fired off a blistering letter to the city, blasting the DPW Epic Eid event \u2014 held at the city-owned indoor park for the past two years \u2014 as discriminatory and a constitutional violation after it was initially closed to the public and strictly catered to Muslim attendees.<\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned Grand Prairie Mayor Scott Jensen the state will yank $530,000 in grants if he doesn\u2019t pull the plug on the annual Eid event. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He then gave Jensen, who is politically unaffiliated, until Monday to call it off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cA city-owned water park in Grand Prairie openly advertised a \u201cMUSLIMS ONLY\u201d event \u2013 closed to the general public,\u201d Abbott fumed in an X post Wednesday.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Abbott blasted the June 1 event as discriminatory and a constitutional violation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s religious discrimination. It\u2019s unconstitutional. I signed HB 4211 into law \u2013 banning Muslim only no-go zones in Texas. The City must cancel the event and commit to never allowing something like it again by May 11th, or lose $530,000 in state grants,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet this be a lesson to local officials: Facilities funded by ALL taxpayers are not just for a subset of Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the event went forward, Grand Prairie officials would be forced to repay the full amount of the state\u2019s five grants and banned from receiving or applying for additional funding, Abbott warned in a letter obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

The holiday bash at the 80,000-square-foot waterpark came under fire after critics slammed a flyer branding it as a \u201cMuslim only event.\u201d Facebook\/EpicWatersGP<\/p>\n

The holiday bash at the 80,000-square-foot waterpark, which opened in 2017 for a whopping $88 million, came under fire after critics slammed a flier branding it as a \u201cMuslim only event.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new flier for the event \u2013 released on Monday \u2013 removed the words \u201cMuslim only\u201d and replaced it with \u201cmodest dress only\u201d and added the line \u201ccome and celebrate Eid with us, all are welcome!\u201d<\/p>\n

The website offers suggestions, including an entire \u201cwhat to wear\u201d section of the site, complete with purchase links for modestly-approved swimwear for women, girls, boys and toddlers.<\/p>\n

The event website included some suggestions on how attendees should dress to uphold Muslim modesty standards. DFW EID<\/p>\n

Event organizer Aminah Knight previously told The Post she walked back the advertising to make clear that the gathering is a \u201cmodest dress-only event centered around celebrating Eid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight said she did not mean to exclude non-Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core intention behind this event is to create a space where individuals and families who value modest dress and a modest environment can come together and feel comfortable enjoying a recreational space that often doesn\u2019t naturally accommodate those preferences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The waterpark \u2013 funded by a 0.25% sales tax residents approved in 2014 \u2013 regularly rents out the space for private events. Facebook\/Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark\ufeff<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the event is rooted in celebrating Eid within the Muslim community, the guiding principle for attendance is the modest dress code. Guests are expected to follow that guideline; such as burkinis for women and swim trunks with shirts for men.\u201d<\/p>\n

The waterpark \u2013 funded by a 0.25% sales tax that residents approved in 2014 \u2013 regularly rents out the space for private events, Knight said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas city scrapped a \u201cMuslim only\u201d holiday event hosted by an Islamic group at a taxpayer-funded waterpark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7750,392,40066,27,29,28,734,81879],"class_list":["post-282443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-discrimination","tag-greg-abbott","tag-muslims","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news","tag-water-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282443","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=282443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}