In most circumstances, the development of a 400-acre field of corn and hay outside Josephine, Texas, would hardly stand out in the state, just another parcel of farmland set to become houses in the ever-expanding sprawl of the Dallas suburbs.

Yet in recent months, Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown himself into stopping the planned community. The reason? It would be anchored by a mosque.

“To be clear, Shariah law is not allowed in Texas,” the Republican governor wrote on social media in late February, reposting a video advertising the project. “Nor are Shariah cities.”

Nearly a quarter-century has passed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised anti-Muslim sentiment across the country, often under the banner of fighting Islamic law, or Shariah. It has been 15 years since politicians in New York City and Washington fanned the furor over a proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan near where the Twin Towers fell.

Over that time, the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has swelled by more than 60%, to around 8.3 million. Its growth has included a diverse influx of people from all over the world, many of them Muslim, but also Hindu, Christian and Jewish.

But Josephine’s master-planned community of about 1,000 homes proposed by members of the East Plano Islamic Center, known as EPIC, has shown how old sentiments can linger.

“There is no crime here,” protested Dan Cogdell, a veteran criminal-defense lawyer hired by the Islamic Center to defend the development. “It’s 9/11 all over again in terms of the reaction.”

Before Abbott’s involvement, few outside of North Texas had heard of the development. Now, nearly the whole state has.

Abbott has posted about the development at least 11 times in recent weeks. He suggested that the developers may have violated fair housing and financial laws, and accused the Islamic center of conducting illegal funerals.

He ordered multiple overlapping investigations. The state’s conservative attorney general, Ken Paxton, added his own criminal inquiry.

The state’s actions have fueled opposition to the development, known as EPIC City, before any initial plans have been submitted. At a hearing on the project in Collin County, where part of it would be built, hours of public comment included expressions of anti-Muslim hostility.

“This is so wrong,” one speaker, Kyle Sims, said. “This country is based on Judeo-Christian values.”

“I know what this would mean,” said another speaker, Krista Schild, a Republican precinct chair in Hunt County, where another portion of the project would be. “Honor killings, stonings, marrying their young girls off to older men.”

Imam Nadim Bashir, who was born in Florida, raised in Texas and leads the mosque, said the governor had created “unnecessary fear” based on misunderstandings of religious ideas like Shariah.

“It’s a personal moral code of life, that’s all it is,” he said. “Standing up for people, serving people, taking care of your family, being honest, this is all part of Shariah.”

It is not, he said, about imposing Muslim religious rules on others. “Why is he making up things which we have never, ever said? We will always work within the laws of the United States and the state of Texas.”

A spokesperson for the governor, Andrew Mahaleris, said “shining a light on potential misconduct serves to protect Texans — not stoke anger toward violators.”

The sudden attacks from Abbott caught EPIC members off guard. The Islamic center and its congregants have been fixtures in Plano for two decades, providing a food bank, mobile medical services and, in recent years, the city’s only warming center during cold weather.

To respond to the investigations, they hired Cogdell, who helped successfully lead Paxton’s defense team during his impeachment trial in 2023.

Cogdell then invited state investigators to visit with the developers and inspect the paperwork.

“We never thought the project would get this much attention,” said Imran Chaudhary, who has been leading the project for a private entity, Community Capital Partners, connected to the Islamic center.

Shortly before visiting the site, Chaudhary received a call from a masked number, one of many he had gotten in recent weeks, often in the middle of the night.

“Get out of America,” a man said, using an expletive before hanging up.

Chaudhary, a senior manager at an information technology company, and Ahmad, a custom homebuilder, said they had been excited to close on the land and announce the project last year. They quickly found 500 people interested in investing in it, including members of the mosque; each put in $80,000 for the right to later buy a plot.

Opponents of the development pointed to statements and marketing materials that appeared aimed at attracting only Muslim buyers. “It’s a way of life, a meticulously designed community that brings Islam to the forefront,” according to a promotional video posted last year.

Chaudhary said the intention was never for the community to be only open to Muslims.

Officials in Josephine declined to discuss the project, which has been a topic of conversation among residents since last year.

The Islamic center in Plano resembles the kinds of large religious campuses — Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist — that are found all over the diverse suburbs of Dallas.

“People need to understand that Muslims here in Plano, we’re just like everyone else,” Bashir said. “We have doctors, we have engineers, we have professors, we have IT workers. And we want what everyone wants,” safe neighborhoods and good schools.

For funerals in the mosque, there is a specialized room where the body can be washed and shrouded as per the religious ritual that includes prayers. What must be done to the body under Texas law is done under contract with a funeral home, said Mohamad Baajour, the mosque’s director of education.

But last month, the Texas Funeral Service Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering the mosque to stop “funeral service operations” and making a criminal referral to the local district attorney.

Since then, the mosque has stopped holding funerals, Cogdell said.

“I wish my words could get across to every single American,” Bashir said, “and that is that if you have questions about our religion, come to us, sit down with us, talk to us, and we will tell you.”