East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC)

EPIC’s resident scholar, Yasir Qadhi, has been accused of supporting jihadism and radicalizing students. ^{3  4}

Activities

In addition to offering the customary Islamic prayer services and religious rites, the East Plano Islamic Center offers its congregants medical care, financial assistance, funeral and marriage services, and other social services. ^{5  6  7  8}

EPIC operates a Sunday and summer school, as well as a part-time and full-time school that educates students on the Qur’an, Arabic language, and Islamic studies. ^{9  10} EPIC also operates the Qalam Collegiate Academy, a Muslim college preparatory school. ¹¹

Its other activities include serving the homeless, feeding the hungry, and conducting left-of-center advocacy on matters of discrimination against Muslims in the United States, police interactions with Black Americans, immigration, and feminism. ^{12  13  14}

Controversies

Yasir Qadhi

Yasir Qadhi, resident scholar at the East Plano Islamic Center, has been accused of being anti-Semitic and an Islamist extremist. ^{3  15  4} He has previously denied the Holocaust. ¹⁶

In a 2016 speech for the Islamic Society of North America, Qadhi attempted to define the variations of jihad that exist and reclaim its primary use from violent Islamic radicals. He argued that jihad is a struggle against whatever stands in the way of Islam, including one’s own flaws on the path to becoming a servant of God. ¹⁵

Qadhi has expressed his opposition to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. In response to his opposition, ISIS threatened Qadhi with death in 2016 along with other prominent Western Muslims who opposed the terrorist group. ^{17  18}

Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, Qadhi expressed his support for Palestinians and Hamas against what he considered to be Israeli occupation. ^{19  20} In 2024, Qadhi encouraged Muslim voters not to vote for then-Vice President Kamala Harris for her support of Israel in its war against Hamas. ¹⁹

In 2001, Qadhi was recorded saying that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler “never intended to mass-destroy the Jews.” Qadhi also claimed that “All this [the Holocaust] is false propaganda.” ¹⁶ According to a New York Times report, he also said that most Islamic studies professors in the United States were Jews who “want to destroy us.” ³

Qadhi eventually admitted that he was misinformed and said the Holocaust was one of the worst crimes committed against humanity. ²¹

Some of Qadhi’s former students have embraced Islamist extremism. ^{3  4} One notable example was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student who attempted to bomb a jetliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 with an explosive device he carried in his underwear. ^{3  22} According to the Times report: “The 36,000 current and former students of Qadhi’s institute include Daniel Maldonado, a New Hampshire convert who was convicted in 2007 of training with an Al Qaeda-linked militia in Somalia; Tarek Mehanna, a 28-year-old pharmacist arrested for conspiring to attack Americans; and two young Virginia men held in Pakistan in 2009 for seeking to train with militants.”  ³

EPIC City

Sometime before February 2025, the East Plano Islamic Center announced its EPIC City project, a proposed 402-acre development northeast of Dallas that would include a new mosque building, more than 1,000 single and multi-family homes, a K-12 faith-based school, senior housing, an outreach center, commercial developments, sports facilities, and a community college. Since announcing the project, EPIC has received extensive negative media coverage and has faced opposition from Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R). In April 2025, Governor Abbott ordered the site’s developers to halt construction on EPIC City pending law enforcement investigation into what he called “potential criminal activities” at the mosque and “affiliated entities.” The developers responded by saying that construction had not even begun on the development yet. ^{2  23  1}

Amidst the media attention surrounding EPIC City, city records revealed that Plano, Texas had donated more than $219,000 to EPIC since 2016, including a $142,921 grant issued on May 9, 2025, just weeks after the state and Governor Abbott opened investigations into the mosque. ¹

In May 2025, KERA News published an article on the EPIC City controversy with statements from EPIC congregants who said they felt threatened and discriminated against through the investigations into the development. ²⁴

In addition to the state-level criminal investigations, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a federal civil rights probe into EPIC City in 2025 following claims that EPIC City homes would only be available to Muslims, which would constitute a discriminatory violation of civil rights. Ending the probe in June 2025, the DOJ said EPIC City agreed to change its marketing materials to comply with the Fair Housing Act. ²⁵

Leadership

Nadim Bashir has been the head imam at the East Plano Islamic Center since 2012. Bashir began studying Arabic and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) in New Orleans. He continued his studies overseas at Jamia Taalimul-Islam in Dewsbury, U.K. for seven years where he studied several Islamic disciplines and graduated in 2003. Previously, Bashir has worked as a lead Quranic and Arabic instructor at various institutions, including the Bayyinah Institute and the Qalam Institute. ²⁶

Yasir Qadhi joined EPIC as a resident scholar in July 2019. He completed his primary and secondary education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Houston, after which he attended the Islamic University of Madinah where he completed a second bachelor’s degree in Hadith studies. He went on to complete his master’s in Islamic theology at the College of Dawah and his Ph.D. in religious studies at Yale University. His online YouTube videos are some of the most highly-watched Islamic videos in English. ²⁶ In 2011, the New York Times labeled Qadhi “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam.” ²⁷

Financials

The East Plano Islamic Center does not report its financials through a public tax return, despite being a legal nonprofit since 2005, as churches and similar religious institutions are exempt from filing. ²⁸