Mohammed Abdullah and his wife, Aminah Knight, have organized an annual Eid celebration at Epic Waters in Grand Prairie since 2024. The first two events at the city-owned waterpark went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne, financially it brings a lot of money to the park, but two, there was never any incidents,\u201d Abdullah told KERA. \u201cFamilies were happy. People were happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this year was different. Abdullah, a chaplain and imam began to notice negative chatter online \u2013 specifically about the event\u2019s flyer, which, just like in past years, read \u201cMuslims only.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of our dress code, our modest dress code, Muslim families and Muslim women in particular don’t usually get the opportunity to do that,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cBecause, you know, people might look at them funny. And so normally, Muslim families wouldn’t go to water parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said no one would have been turned away, but organizers changed the flyer to instead say \u201cmodest dress only.\u201d But it had already caught the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the event \u201creligious discrimination\u201d and \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said it violated a new state law, House Bill 4211, banning \u201cMuslim only no-go zones\u201d in Texas. He ordered the city of Grand Prairie to cancel the event<\/a> or lose more than half a million dollars in state funding.<\/p>\n KERA reached out to Abbott\u2019s office and the city of Grand Prairie for this story but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s people who are out there as agitators just looking for anything to use as like political bait to then say, \u2018look at this\u2019 and create a fuss about it,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cSo, you know, Muslims are under attack. That’s why this got picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n Community organizer and politician Zeeshan Hafeez said he didn\u2019t agree with the initial wording on the flyer \u2013 but said events can be held to cater to the Muslim community.<\/p>\n \u201cShould an event be canceled because they made a mistake on a flyer that was a matter of terminology \u2014 absolutely not,\u201d Hafeez said. \u201cI think the response does not meet the mistake that was made.\u201d<\/p>\n He said what happened with Epic Waters is the \u201clatest in this pattern of anti-Muslim rhetoric by Greg Abbott.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy does Greg Abbott need to get involved with a Muslim celebration of Eid?\u201d Hafeez said. \u201cBasically, would it make any sense for him to go and get involved in a Christmas celebration where kids are just going there to have fun in a water park together? Why would you want to cancel that?\u201d<\/p>\n Texas state Rep. Jessica Gonzalez, who represents House District 104 where Epic Waters is located, said other events at publicly owned venues haven\u2019t come under the same scrutiny. In a letter to Abbott, she and 40 other Democratic state lawmakers pointed to similar private religious events held at city venues without issue: In 2023, the letter said, a church in Grapevine privately rented NRH20 \u2014 a city-owned waterpark in North Richland Hills for a closed student ministry event advertised as not open for the public. And this month another church in Colleyville is hosting a family night at the same park \u2014 for church members only.<\/p>\n Gonzalez said she reached out to Grand Prairie city officials when she heard they had canceled the event at Epic Waters. She believes the governor didn\u2019t have the authority to threaten funding, but understood the city was in a difficult position.<\/p>\n \u201cI can see why these cities have to really make a hard decision on what to do to see, because who knows if the governor will actually follow through with doing that,\u201d Gonzalez told KERA.<\/p>\n Michael Phillips is a retired history professor from Southern Methodist University who now works with Human Rights Dallas. He called Abbott\u2019s threat \u201can obvious separate and unequal application of law here.\u201d<\/p>\n “Republicans had sold themselves as the party of local government and small government–and under this Republican regime that’s now three decades old in Texas, we have seen this centralizing of power in Austin, and particularly in the hands of the governor,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Muslims have become a scapegoat in Texas, Phillips said. The state has launched multiple investigations into a proposed Muslim-centered housing development<\/a> in unincorporated Collin and Hunt counties \u2013 investigations civil rights groups have said amount to religious discrimination.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Muslims are stripped of their religious liberty… if they begin to be told they can’t use city facilities, if they can’t develop planned communities, etcetera, they’re not going to be the only group that suffers from that, “he said.<\/p>\n Civil rights activist Hadi Jawad, who is Muslim and works with Phillips at Human Rights Dallas, said the anti-Muslim rhetoric is unfair and dangerous. \u201cIt is putting lives at risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the first thing, and this is something that is immediate, that must be done is for the top ranking Republican officials in the state of Texas to apologize for the words that they have leveled against an innocent Texas Muslim population,” Jawad said. \u201cThey owe Texas Muslims an apology.”<\/p>\n Mohammed Abdullah said he has yet to receive an apology from the city.<\/p>\n He and his family still don\u2019t know why exactly their event was canceled. He said the people most affected by the whole ordeal were the children who had been looking forward to the pool party.<\/p>\n “We just don’t understand what the issue was and why it couldn’t be rectified,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cIf you don’t want the flyer to say this, we changed the flyers, it said something else. So where do we move?\u201d<\/p>\n Abdullah said he still plans to bring the annual event back for families to enjoy next year \u2013 but it won\u2019t likely be at Epic Waters.<\/p>\n Priscilla Rice is KERA\u2019s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at\u00a0price@kera.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n