{"id":283277,"date":"2026-05-07T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/283277\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:48:08","slug":"abbott-orders-north-texas-muslim-school-to-stop-offering-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/283277\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott orders North Texas Muslim school to stop offering programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that the Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, a North Texas school that offers bachelor\u2019s programs with Islamic studies courses, must cease operations.<\/p>\n

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said the school is offering higher education courses and degrees without a proper certificate of authority,<\/a> violating Texas laws for operating a higher education institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Abbott\u2019s direction, the state agency ordered the school, which is based in Richardson, to cease advertising its programs and enrolling students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas will not allow illegal educational institutions to operate in our state,\u201d Abbott wrote Thursday in a post on X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shahid Bajwa, the school\u2019s founder, declined to immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, which says its \u201cnorth star\u201d is to \u201cadvance Texas,\u201d advertises itself as the first university in the country to offer STEM degree programs with mandatory courses in Islamic studies.<\/p>\n

For example, students can enroll in an online Master\u2019s in Artificial Intelligence program, which consists of 40 credits. To complete the degree, students take nine technology classes and four Islamic ones. Another class, called \u201cIntroduction to Cybersecurity,\u201d meets twice a week and promises to provide a \u201ccomprehensive introduction to cybersecurity fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n

It costs \u201c$99 for a 3-credit course\u201d for international students, while U.S. students pay \u201c$99 X 3 for a 3-credit course,\u201d according to the website.<\/p>\n

Private universities must be authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to grant degrees <\/a>in Texas under state law. The law, which aims to \u201cprevent deception of the public\u201d based on \u201cfraudulent or substandard college and university degrees,\u201d requires institutions that are already accredited or working toward accreditation to apply for authorization. For schools that are not accredited, agency officials review several factors, such as the institutions\u2019 mission, governance and financial resources and stability. A site visit is also part of the application.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school does not appear in the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s database<\/a> of accredited postsecondary institutions and programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said the school, which is listed in state filings as a nonprofit, cannot use the term \u201cuniversity\u201d without a certificate of authority, according to a letter sent from the agency to the school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school has until Friday to respond to the higher education agency\u2019s letter and confirm that it has \u201cvoluntarily, permanently, and immediately ceased\u201d advertising, offering and enrolling students in programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Abbott and the coordinating board threatened legal action by the attorney general if the school does not comply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff writer Jessica Ma contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that the Texas American Muslim University at Dallas, a North Texas school that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[732,95009,95012,27,29,28,89512,87998,90041,89204,92240,89275,90463],"class_list":["post-283277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-article","tag-news-faith","tag-news-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-ed-lab-school","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tp-religion","tag-tp-richardson","tag-tp-texas-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283277","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=283277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}