PLANO — The East Plano Islamic Center accused Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Texas officials Tuesday of engaging in what it called “state-sponsored Islamophobia,” following a new investigation that reported Abbott advisers circulated a confidential memorandum outlining potential government actions against the mosque and its planned development.
In a statement released Oct. 13, EPIC said the reporting showed what it believes was a deliberate effort to use state agencies against the mosque, its development project and other community services.
The statement was responding to a Texas Monthly investigation published this week based on thousands of pages of records. The magazine reported that advisers in Abbott’s office circulated an unsigned nine-page memorandum discussing possible avenues for state action involving EPIC and the development previously known as EPIC City.
The records described in the investigation raise new questions about how a series of state investigations involving the North Texas Muslim institution began and what role the governor’s advisers played in directing them. A summary of the investigation reports that Abbott’s press secretary described advisers’ involvement as a routine exercise of executive authority.
Context Corner has not yet independently reviewed the full nine-page memo or the complete collection of records obtained by Texas Monthly.
A dispute over what securities investigators found
One part of the new reporting can already be compared against an unusual public statement issued by the Texas State Securities Board last year.
Abbott announced in March 2025 that the Securities Board had opened an investigation into EPIC and affiliated entities for possible violations of securities laws. At the time, Abbott said the group behind the project “may be misleading investors” and tied the inquiry to a broader series of state investigations involving EPIC.
Attorney General Ken Paxton later announced that his office had identified evidence of securities-law violations and asked the Securities Board to review the findings and refer the matter back to his office.
But in December 2025, then-Texas Securities Commissioner Travis Iles publicly challenged how his agency’s work had been characterized.
The Securities Board said a news report had falsely attributed to Iles a claim that EPIC-related entities had sold securities illegally and that his agency had identified “flagrant violations.”
The agency called that attribution a “wholly false statement.”
The Securities Board also said that, at that point, neither Iles nor agency staff had been provided the attorney general’s corresponding evidence to review. The board had instead provided its own investigative file to Paxton’s office and asked the attorney general to take whatever action he considered appropriate.
Paxton nevertheless filed a lawsuit in December alleging violations of Texas securities law.
The newly published Texas Monthly investigation goes further, reporting that Iles’ staff had concluded the project’s offerings did not constitute securities and that Iles later described Paxton’s lawsuit in an internal email with one word: “Corrupt.”
Those claims will require further examination of the underlying investigative files, correspondence and court record.
EPIC says the records change the picture
EPIC said Tuesday that the revelations reinforce what the organization has maintained throughout the controversy: that officials were searching for legal mechanisms to act against the mosque rather than responding to established wrongdoing.
The organization said it believes state officials were “determined to find a way to prosecute EPIC regardless of what the evidence showed.”
That is EPIC’s allegation. No court has made such a finding.
EPIC also pointed to state intervention involving its funeral operations, arguing that the consequences reached beyond the proposed real-estate development and affected Muslim families seeking burial services.
The mosque said the cumulative actions represented an attack on religious freedom and equal treatment under law.
Texas has pursued EPIC through multiple agencies
The state has publicly maintained that its actions concern compliance with Texas and federal law.
Abbott’s administration has announced or supported investigations involving securities, fair housing, funeral services and potential criminal activity.
In February 2026, Abbott said a Texas Workforce Commission investigation resulted in a fair-housing complaint that was accepted for federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His office also cited investigations or actions involving the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Securities Board, the Funeral Service Commission and the Texas Rangers.
Paxton has likewise continued to characterize the development as legally problematic. In March, he urged Collin County officials to reject additional development applications connected to the project, citing what his office described as securities violations and other unresolved legal issues.
Those allegations remain contested.
The question now shifts to how the investigations began
EPIC’s statement presents the controversy as evidence of religious and political targeting.
Abbott and Paxton have presented their actions as law enforcement and regulatory oversight.
The newly reported records introduce a third question that Context Corner intends to examine independently:
What happened before the investigations were publicly announced?
That means determining who authored the nine-page memorandum, who received it, what instructions state agencies were given, what career investigators actually concluded and whether those conclusions changed as the cases moved through the state government.
For now, EPIC is calling for transparency and accountability.
The underlying records may ultimately determine whether the new disclosures support something more significant than a political dispute between Texas officials and one North Texas mosque.
Sources: East Plano Islamic Center statement, Oct. 13, 2026; Texas State Securities Board; Office of Gov. Greg Abbott; Texas Attorney General’s Office
Additional Reporting: Texas Monthly