The McKinney Islamic Association is facing continued scrutiny after McKinney City Council announced it will be holding a final vote on a proposed mosque and Islamic center. Last week, it was revealed that McKinney’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend approval of the association’s plan to build a new mosque and community campus off Virginia Parkway near two residential neighborhoods. The council is scheduled to approve or deny the project at its Aug. 4 meeting. Ammon Blair, senior fellow for the Secure & Sovereign Nation initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Daily Signal that Texas needs to “demand complete transparency regarding MIA’s funding, foreign contributions, institutional affiliations, tribunal activities, use of campus facilities, dispute-resolution practices, and protections against coercion.” “Texas must enforce one constitutional order, one civil sovereign, and one controlling rule of law,” he said. “No religious, ideological, political, or foreign-linked organization stands above that standard.” The Proposal The proposed site for the center is a 5-acre tract that would include a 37,000-square-foot facility with a mosque, educational spaces, gymnasium, and meeting rooms. The facility would accommodate up to 3,000 people. Residents have raised concerns about noise, traffic congestion, and potential impacts on property values in the area. Despite those concerns, McKinney City Councilman Patrick Cloutier told attendees at last week’s meeting that the council has limited authority over the proposal. The Islamic association purchased the property years ago and originally sought to build a 45,000-square-foot building, which would have required a zoning change, Cloutier said. The group later reduced the size of the project to comply with the property’s existing zoning. The McKinney Islamic Association currently operates a mosque on Eldorado Parkway in a shopping center that includes multiple businesses. The organization says its growing congregation has created the need for a larger facility. The McKinney Islamic Association Sam Westrop, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project, told the Daily Signal that the Mckinney Islamic Association has worked on presentations alongside the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which he described as one of America’s leading Islamic organizations. CAIR has been under scrutiny by Texas officials, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, for its alleged ties to supporters of the terrorist group Hamas. For its part, CAIR rejects being associated with Hamas. “The smear ‘Hamas-CAIR’ was popularized by Islamophobic groups. It too falls flat. Hamas is on the U.S. Department of States’ Foreign Terrorist Organization list. Thus, being affiliated with or in any way supporting such a group would be illegal,” the group’s website states under a section called “urban legends.” Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the McKinney mosque also organized a November 2023 event with the American Muslims for Palestine, a group that the Program on Extremism at George Washington University has researched and reported on for using “pro-Hamas rhetoric” and co-sponsoring “hundreds of pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses” following the attack. During that November 2023 event, the featured speaker was Taher Herzallah, American Muslims for Palestine’s director of outreach and community organizing. In a podcast interview released on the American Muslim Society’s YouTube channel on Oct 17, 2023, Herzallah offered a response to the situation in Gaza. Westrop said the McKinney Islamic Association “appears to be one of a subset of Texas mosques under Islamist control.” “Its expansion reflects the growing financial power and ideological determination of the radical forces working to subsume Texas Muslim communities,” he said. Imam Mohamed Al-Gebaly The current Imam at the McKinney mosque is Mohamed Al-Gebaly, according to the McKinney Masjid Instagram account and other online listings about McKinney Islamic Association. Blair told the Daily Signal that Al-Gebaly was assigned by the Egyptian government to a mosque in Virginia. “That history itself does not prove that Egypt currently directs, funds, controls, or supervises him. It does, however, establish that a foreign government formally appointed him to an Islamic religious leadership position inside the United States,” he said. Al-Gebaly is listed as “a distinguished graduate of Al-Azhar University, earning his degree in 1996.” A November 2023 research paper published by The Institute for National Security Studies called out the university—and its related Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt—for standing with Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Al-Gebaly also serves in a leadership role with the Islamic Tribunal of North Dallas, which has come under scrutiny by Texas leaders, including by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a November 2025 letter to law enforcement. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also is investigating the Tribunal. In November 2025, Abbott called on state and local authorities to investigate whether tribunals in Collin and Dallas Counties were operating as legal courts in place of state and federal law through the use of Sharia. In April 2026, Paxton demanded records from the Tribunal as part of an investigation into alleged illegal activity. His office cited allegations that the Islamic Tribunal “seeks to impose sharia law on all disputes among Texas Muslims and falsely represents that its decisions are final judgements with ‘the approval of the Texas Judicial system.'” The investigation and Paxton’s statements did not constitute a final judicial finding that the Islamic Tribunal violated Texas law. Since then, the Islamic Tribunal has updated its website to state that it provides only voluntary, spiritual, and nonbinding religious guidance. The website has a disclaimer saying that it does not “engage in the practice of law, function as a civil or criminal court, issue legally binding rulings or decisions, or provide legal advice or legal representation.” However, Blair said the disclaimer should not end the inquiry. “Investigators should determine what the Tribunal previously told participants, what agreements or submission forms it required, what decisions it issued, whether religious leaders directed congregants to participate, how it handled marriage and religious-divorce disputes, whether community pressure made participation functionally compulsory, and whether anyone represented a religious determination as binding under Texas law,” he said. Campus Expansion to Offer Social Services The McKinney Islamic Association also has worked with ICNA Relief Dallas, which provides food distribution, community-service activities, foster-care programming, and other social services. Blair says those collaborations demonstrate that the association participates in broader social-service networks and “is building institutional capacity that extends beyond prayer services.” “The proposed campus will add classrooms, a gym, a multipurpose facility, and expanded community space,” he said. “Officials should therefore understand it as permanent religious, educational, social, and institutional infrastructure, not simply additional room for weekly worship.” Constitutional Concerns Blair said McKinney Islamic Association’s foreign government connection, local mosque leadership, Islamic legal scholarship, Sharia-based religious adjudication, social-service partnerships, and community-building efforts should be examined together. “The constitutional issue does not concern private Muslim worship,” he said. “The First Amendment fully protects belief, prayer, religious education, peaceful association, voluntary mediation, and religious observance.” “The constitutional issue arises when any religious, ideological, political, or organizational system attempts to exercise coercive civil authority, obstruct access to American courts, misrepresent religious decisions as legally binding, pressure vulnerable participants into religious adjudication, or subordinate Texas law to an alternative governing system,” Blair added. The McKinney Islamic Association, CAIR, the Islamic Tribunal, and American Muslims for Palestine did not respond to the Daily Signal’s requests for comment before publication.