From Dallas Express · Dallas Express · · 3m
Rival Crowds Meet Outside a Plano Mosque on 9/11
Two groups gathered at the same Collin County mosque on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, with opposite messages about Muslim North Texas.
In brief
Two groups gathered at the same Collin County mosque on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, with opposite messages about Muslim North Texas. The Plano standoff was really an argument over whether North Texas Muslims should be read through 9/11 at all, and both sides brought that fight to the same sidewalk. Originally…
Two crowds, one sidewalk
On Friday, September 11, 2026, protesters and counterprotesters gathered outside the Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano, clashing over Islam, Sharia, and Muslim growth in North Texas.
Who called the rally
Lone Star Legionaries promoted the event at 6401 Independence Parkway as "Stand for Texas (Against the Islamic Invasion)," urging Texans to oppose what it calls rising Islamic influence.
“Stand for Texas (Against the Islamic Invasion)”
Who showed up to oppose it
Muslims and an interfaith coalition assembled nearby to counter the demonstration and signal support for the mosque and its congregation.
A candidate takes the mic
Jenn Mack, an independent write-in candidate for Texas governor, said the day should be for mourning the dead while confronting what she called Islamic supremacism.
“Right now, we are in a day where we're supposed to be truly mourning and memorializing those who have fallen during 9/11.”
No room for hurt feelings
Mack argued that worry about offending people should not stop Americans from talking about Islamic extremism, pointing to the scale of the 2001 losses.
“We can't worry about hurting people's feelings. We lost thousands of American citizens.”
What the day marks
The attacks killed 2,977 people after 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four planes, striking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The fourth went down in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.
From EPIC City to activism
Krista Schild, Texas director of RAIR Foundation USA, said her campaign against what she calls the Islamization of Texas began with the proposed EPIC City development near her home.
“I've been standing against the Islamization of Texas, and specifically started with EPIC City.”
The allegations she brings lawmakers
Schild says activists hand legislators documentation tying Texas mosques, including East Plano Islamic Center and scholar Yasir Qadhi, to the Muslim Brotherhood. She made similar claims to a House subcommittee in February.
What the record actually shows
Qadhi belongs to IUMS, which a State Department report describes as widely seen as Brotherhood-affiliated and which four Gulf states listed as terrorist in 2017. IUMS calls that designation politically motivated.
Where the record stops
EPIC hosted a 2023 event on Aafia Siddiqui, convicted of attempting to murder Americans in Afghanistan. But no US agency has charged or designated EPIC or Qadhi as terrorist, and EPIC is a different mosque from Friday's site.
Welcome, not suspicion
A Muslim representative with CLEAR DFW said Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others came to show the congregation it belongs here, framing the turnout as a peaceful answer.
“This is a very peaceful resistance to what we are witnessing here in our opposition.”
Sharia, defined two ways
She called Sharia divine guidance for living an ethical life, a path toward God, and rejected the idea that Muslims want to impose it. Counterprotesters said tying local Muslims to the hijackers is unfair.
“What unites us is far greater than what divides us.”
The big picture
The Plano standoff was really an argument over whether North Texas Muslims should be read through 9/11 at all, and both sides brought that fight to the same sidewalk.
