A Muslim advocacy group is calling for Gov. Greg Abbott to launch an investigation into alleged civil rights violations within the Texas Funeral Service Commission after anti-Islam texts by the commission's chair surfaced last week.
It comes days after reporting from KERA News and the Houston Chronicle revealed TFSC Presiding Officer Kristin Tips texted an anti-Muslim graphic and links to the commission's then-executive director Scott Bingaman in May. TFSC is currently investigating the East Plano Islamic Center for allegedly operating as a funeral home without a license.
It's one of several state investigations into the North Texas mosque, spurred by an influx of negative attention aimed at EPIC by state officials and right-wing social media pages.
The Council for American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, called those investigations a "broad attack" on the mosque.
"Governor Abbott was very free with launching investigations targeting Muslims and has shared Islamophobic content from at least two social media accounts," read a Tuesday statement from Corey Saylor, CAIR's research and advocacy director. "He should now be transparent with Texans and open the books to an impartial investigator because the current picture we have is that anti-Muslim hate drove his attack on EPIC City and possibly influenced the funeral service commission as well."
Maria Haynes, TFSC's interim executive director, declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday. KERA News also reached out to Tips, Bingaman and the governor's office and will update this story with any responses.
Texts obtained by KERA News show that late at night on May 20, Tips sent Bingaman a graphic that compared the tenets of Judaism and Christianity to the rules of Islam and Muslim countries. It stated, without context, that the Quran describes non-Muslims as "subhuman," and that touching the holy book as a non-Muslim, "can mean death."
Tips then shared a link to a May 9 video by YouTuber Tal Oran in which he criticized a clip from an unnamed podcast discussing EPIC City, the mosque's planned development in Collin County. Oran said the proposed community would breed "terrorists."
"Not a fan… tough to be tolerant when taught hate," Bingaman replied.
Over the course of Tips and Bingaman's texts, Tips seemed to blame the failure of a cemetery bill she supported in the Texas Legislature on Democratic State Rep. Suleman Lalani of Sugar Land, one of the state's only Muslim lawmakers. She shared with Bingaman an image of Lalani in the Capitol and a screenshot of Lalani's Instagram post the day he took the oath of office in January, which he did with his hand on a Quran as opposed to Christian lawmakers' usual choice of a Bible.
Tips also sent Bingaman a link to the May 6 episode of the Chad Prather Show. The conservative political commentator questioned whether EPIC City and the Texas Legislature's recognition of "Pakistan Day" this year indicated a "slow and steady creep of cultural replacement" pushing out Judeo-Christian roots. Bingaman did not appear to respond.
The funeral commission announced its investigation into EPIC in March. Abbott lauded the move, saying in a press release the mosque was "knowingly breaking state law in many ways, including by operating a funeral home without a license."
Abbott appointed Tips to the commission in 2017 and as presiding officer last year. Tips runs a San Antonio funeral business with her husband Robert "Dick" Tips.
EPIC sued over the investigation, alleging the commission had no authority to take disciplinary action against the mosque and that it was being targeted over its religion. But in a July letter, TFSC walked back some of its claims. That allowed some of EPIC's funeral practices to continue, but the investigation remained ongoing.
Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state officials have also taken issue with EPIC City, the mosque's planned 402-acre development in unincorporated Collin and Hunt counties. It would feature a new mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and more than 1,000 homes.
EPIC is under a total of five state investigations that allege the EPIC City project could unlawfully discriminate against non-Muslims, cause financial harm to investors and violate state consumer protection laws, among other things.
Meanwhile, the funeral commission has faced its own internal controversies this year. Commissioners fired Bingaman in June, which he alleged was because he accused Tips of unlawfully advocating for funeral industry bills in the Texas Legislature.
Two staff attorneys who publicly backed Bingaman's claims were fired in July — though they said they were given no cause for their terminations. The commission sued the attorneys for allegedly violating attorney-client privilege after they shared the details of their firings with KERA News and continued to allege wrongdoing by Tips. The commission then dropped that suit without explanation less than a week after it was filed.
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.
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