{"id":89999,"date":"2025-12-16T14:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89999\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:49:06","slug":"plano-muslim-food-pantry-disrupted-by-white-nationalist-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/89999\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano Muslim Food Pantry Disrupted by White Nationalist Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Saturday, the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC)<\/a> runs the Help Your Neighbor Drive Through Food Pantry, handing out a box of free food to a line of cars, regardless of religious affiliation, no questions asked, because, in the words of Muhammed: \u201cHe is not a believer whose stomach is filled while the neighbor to his side goes hungry.\u201d <\/p>\n

But on Dec. 13, the usual distribution of food was disrupted by Christian nationalists shouting things like, \u201cNo sharia law,\u201d as mosque volunteers handed food out to anyone who needed it. The mosque was aware that these people were coming; their trip had been planned for weeks after a radical social media figure announced his Islamophobic protest trail was headed to Plano<\/a> on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In preparation, EPIC enhanced security measures, including collaboration with the Plano Police Department. They also canceled Saturday afternoon classes and encouraged congregants to refrain from attending the place of worship unless their presence was essential.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt this time, there is no specific or credible threat to the masjid,\u201d the mosque wrote on its Instagram page. \u201c\u2026 EPIC is not involved in organizing, supporting, approving, or facilitating this protest or any counter-protest activity. PROTEST OR DEMONSTRATION ACTIVITY IS NOT PERMITTED ON EPIC PROPERTY. This rule applies to all individuals, including congregants, visitors, and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other than blocking hungry families, many of whom aren\u2019t necessarily Muslim, from getting food and disrupting a bi-monthly free clinic that the mosque provides, EPIC\u2019s senior scholar, Yasir Qadhi, called the protest a failure.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, this fringe element, which claims to be Christian and patriotic, is neither acting in the true spirit of Christianity nor exemplifying true patriotism,\u201d told the Observer. \u201cThey made such a big deal with national calls for massive protests.\u201d <\/p>\n

The protest was organized by Jake Lang, who has been on his own extremist version of a pilgrimage, traveling the country to spread his vitriol. Lang is a young political candidate vying to fill the Senate seat vacated by Florida\u2019s Marco Rubio, and much of his campaign is crutched by his status as a convicted participant in the infamous January 6 Capitol riot<\/a>. Lang served four years for his involvement in the siege and for attacking a police officer, before he was pardoned by President Donald Trump in early 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8 BREAKING: <\/p>\n

OUR CHRISTIAN CRUSADERS MARCH IS HEADED TO TEXAS NEXT!! \u271d\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\ude32<\/p>\n

Thousands of Christians will descend upon the MUSLIM ONLY \u2018Epic City\u2019 in Texas on DECEMBER 13th!! \ud83d\ude33\ud83d\ude33<\/p>\n

This is the AMERICA FIRST \/ AMERICA ONLY MOVEMENT that we need RIGHT NOW!! \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n

NO Islamification! pic.twitter.com\/H6Yna0wrSy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jake Lang \u2013 January 6 Political Prisoner \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@JakeLang) November 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a person who doesn\u2019t even belong to Texas, doesn\u2019t even have anything to do with our community, and he\u2019s fomenting hatred against us,\u201d said Qadhi. \u201cIt was a miserable failure, not even 80 people at max were present.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Lang, who raised over $15,000 for the protest from a largely anonymous roster of contributors over the last month, led his small mob from the mosque to the Plano City Hall, with a baby pig under his arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will stand tall in the face of the pedophile prophet, Muhammad. Here\u2019s your kryptonite, Muslims,\u201d Lang said while lifting the pig in the air and speaking to the group. \u201c\u2026 You cannot stand against the strength of white American men\u2026. I suggest you leave now before the crusades really start.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Has Happened Before <\/p>\n

During Thanksgiving week, Lang was in Dearborn, Michigan, the first American city with a majority Arab population. There, Lang led a small group of protestors through the city, shouting about God, before attempting to burn a Quran. Tensions increased between Lang\u2019s group and counterprotestors, and someone ripped the holy book from Lang\u2019s grasp. Now, the GOP candidate is suing the city of Dearborn for $200 million, claiming the city\u2019s police department failed to protect him as he exercised his First Amendment right to protest.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s arguing their First Amendment right,\u201d Qadhi said when asked about strategizing mosque activities around the protest. \u201cBut what do you hope to accomplish by going to a faith community and doing sacrilegious things outside of their center of worship, while there are women and children inside, ironically, while they\u2019re distributing food to the people that need food? Most of them are not from our faith community. There\u2019s no hidden agenda. We do this every single Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t Lang\u2019s first rodeo, and by now, the leaders of EPIC are certainly used to the stationing of do-it-yourself evangelists with amplifiers. For months, a handful of protestors have sat outside the mosque each week, calling attendees sinners as they walk to perform their daily prayer. Though EPIC has been an integral part of the North Texas Muslim community for a decade, and its philanthropic efforts have been serving Plano just as long, the community landed itself in the spotlight when a proposed residential development planned in Josephine caught the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The development, titled EPIC City, was abandoned after questions about a potential religious residency requirement were met with cult and \u201csharia city\u201d allegations. In March, Abbott announced he had ordered investigations from a dozen different state departments<\/a> into the mosque. Aside from a funeral services violation, the investigations were not fruitful, but the governor and Attorney General Ken Paxton have continued to release statements about EPIC and their plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no reason for the governor just to single out one particular house of worship in his entire state that he\u2019s never visited, never formally interacted with, never once even had his staff call us,\u201d said Qadhi. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense to us why our governor, who is supposed to represent us, who is supposed to bring the community together, is making statements that are, quite frankly, slanderous, factually incorrect, full of misinformation, not once, not twice, almost a dozen times, over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

An End Might Be In Sight<\/p>\n

For almost an entire year, EPIC and its congregants have been at the center of Islamophobia, driven at least in part by the state\u2019s officials.\u00a0Lang\u2019s protest, while one of the most egregiously offensive displays, is nothing more than the theatre of politics, says Qadhi.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can say is there\u2019s an election going on, and this is a tried and tested method to create a bogeyman, create a Frankenstein monster, and then tell the very people you\u2019ve frightened that, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, vote me in and I will save you,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, this tried and tested method works in the short run, but it is always harmful to civic society in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes that soon the smear campaign will end, but if it remains, it will not stop EPIC from doing what religious institutions have always stood to do in the United States: give back. The day after Lang\u2019s protest, volunteers at EPIC hauled out cots, converting the facility\u2019s gymnasium into a catch-all warming shelter for the unhoused for the second time this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of rhetoric is very, very divisive and painful, and frankly, potentially physically dangerous, and it is always more dangerous to the peace and harmony of a neighborhood, and in a country, than to build a conducive, wholesome civil society,\u201d said Qadhi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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