Islam in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex


There is a significant population of American Muslims in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas-Fort Worth is home to sixty-two Sunni mosques, eight Sunni musalla, and four Shia mosques. According to AbdelRahman Murphy, a Chicago-born, Irving-based Islamic teacher and Muslim community leader, other U.S.-based Muslims now refer to Dallas as the "Medina of America".

History

Islam first came to Dallas through the Nation of Islam, whose members were sent by Elijah Muhammad during the 1950s, founding Temple #48 in Downtown Dallas. When Elijah Muhammad was succeeded by his sun Wallace Deen Muhammad in 1975, the Dallas Temple #48 was reorganized as The Dallas Masjid Al-Islam. Meanwhile, international Muslims established the Islamic Association of North Texas in 1969. In 1977, the African American Muslims and the International Immigrant Muslims had the first combined Eid al-Fitr on Baghdad St. in a backyard in Grand Prairie, TX. In 1980, IANT was joined by Imam Yusuf Ziya Kavakçı. Throughout the next few decades, more Mosques were built. IANT established the longest running free health clinics of the Muslim community, followed by the East Plano Islamic Center and Valley Ranch Islamic Center later on. Eventually, Nouman Ali Khan moved to Dallas, followed by Omar Suleiman. This led to an increase of Muslim immigration to Dallas from other parts of America. There is also a growing number of Hispanic Muslims in Dallas.

List of mosques

List of Islamic scholars and speakers

Name of ScholarArea of DFW
Yasir QadhiPlano
Omar SuleimanIrving
Yaser BirjasIrving
Abdul Nasir JangdaArlington
Hussain KamaniCarrollton
Zia SheikhIrving
Arsalan HaquePlano
Nadim BashirPlano
Mohamad BaajourPlano
Shpendim NadzakuRichardson
Mohammed Wasim KhanPlano
Nick PelletierIrving
Sayid Ahmed AbdullahiCarrollton
Abdullah OduroCoppell
Zafar AnjumThe Colony
Nouman Ali KhanIrving

Controversies

Yasir Qadhi

In January 2010, the British The Daily Telegraph reported that in 2001 Qadhi had described the Holocaust as a hoax and false propaganda, and had claimed that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews." The following year, The New York Times recounted his claim that most Islamic studies professors in the United States are Jews who “want to destroy us.”
Qadhi denied stating that the Holocaust was a hoax or that it was false propaganda, but in 2008 admitted that he had briefly held mistaken beliefs about the Holocaust, and had said "that Hitler never actually intended to massacre the Jews, he actually wanted to expel them to neighboring lands". Qadhi acknowledged that his views were wrong and said "I admit it was an error". Qadhi added that he firmly believes "that the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes against humanity that the 20th century has witnessed" and that "the systematic dehumanization of the Jews in the public eye of the Germans was a necessary precursor" for that tragedy. More generally, he has admitted that he "fell down a slippery slope", expressing anger at actions of the Israeli government in the form of anti-Semitic remarks he later recognized as wrong.
In December 2009, one of Qadhi's former students Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a transatlantic aeroplane with explosives concealed in his underwear.
In July 2010, Qadhi was selected to participate in an official delegation of eight U.S. imams and Jewish religious leaders to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. The imams subsequently released a joint statement condemning anti-Semitism and labeling Holocaust denial as against the ethics of Islam.
The Times newspaper reported that British Charity Commission regulators contacted three Islamic charities about Qadhi's 2015 tour, where he allegedly made controversial comments and told students that "killing homosexuals and stoning adulterers was part of their religion".

Holy Land Foundation (HLF)

The Holy Land Foundation was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and run by Palestinian-Americans, it was originally known as Occupied Land Fund. In 2004, a federal grand jury in Dallas, Texas charged HLF and five former officers and employees with providing material support to Hamas and related offenses. The prosecution's theory was that HLF distributed charity through local zakat committees located in the West Bank that paid stipends to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and Hamas prisoners; that Hamas controlled those zakat committees; that by distributing charity through Hamas-controlled committees, HLF helped Hamas build a grassroots support amongst the Palestinian people; and that these charity front organizations served a dual purpose of laundering the money for all of Hamas's activities.
Critics faulted some of the evidence given during the trial. For example, over defense objection, the government called two anonymous witnesses: an Israeli Security Agency employee who was known to the jurors and the defense as "Avi" and an Israeli Defense Forces officer who was known to the jurors and the defense as "Major Lior." The defense lawyers were not permitted to know the names of these witnesses. The government cited legal restrictions and safety concerns to protect Avi's identity, of which the motion for protective measures was granted his testimony was based on "much of the material that has previously been provided to the defense... as well as some of the documentation seized from the Holy Land Foundation's offices." However, the government was ordered to provide the defendants with all "tangible underlying facts and data, not previously produced, upon which the ISA agent relies in reaching his opinion."
The government did not allege that HLF paid directly for suicide bombings, but instead that the foundation supported terrorism by sending more than $12 million to charitable groups, known as zakat or charity committees, which provide social goods and services. The prosecution said the committees were controlled by Hamas, and contributed to terrorism by helping Hamas spread its ideology, recruit supporters, and provide a front for laundering money and soliciting donations.