The Frisco City Council meeting on Tuesday extended past 1 a.m. after more than four hours of public comments regarding proposals for a second mosque and two new Hindu temples. The meeting concluded without a vote, but Mayor Jeff Cheney addressed the packed chamber, informing attendees that the Council had no legal grounds to block the projects and would not be taking any further action.
“I haven’t heard a legal, entitled way – based on talking to our attorneys – to appeal,” Cheney said in closing remarks following the marathon of a public comment session. “So Council, if there’s no other questions, there’ll be no further action for us to take.”
The three agenda items focusing on the mosque and temples were advanced by the Planning and Zoning Commission earlier this month, as The Dallas Express previously reported, and moved forward by default – a procedural outcome Cheney described as a product of zoning rules established decades ago that the Council could not unilaterally reverse.
“Texas is a property right state,” Cheney said. “The state holds that very dear, and so unfortunately, a lot of property in Frisco was zoned many decades ago. If we had a magic wand and could change some historical zoning, I would have a long list for you as far as things that I would love to go back and change.”
Cheney also acknowledged the session was unlike anything he had previously experienced in his tenure as Mayor. “I think this is the first time we’ve pulled an item off this agenda item in my 18-year career,” he said, noting the Council acted in response to alleged widespread public confusion about where exactly the projects stood in the approval process.
“There was a lot of, quite frankly, misinformation about where we were in the process – but we also wanted to hear concerns, and I think we did hear some really valid concerns from the nearby neighborhood.”
Cheney noted that the mosque’s leaders had agreed to close an entrance that had drawn complaints from the Turnbridge Manor neighborhood. “I think that will rectify many, many of their concerns,” the mayor said.
ICQC Mosque Project Emerges as Most Contentious Issue
The most contentious item on the agenda remained the Islamic Center of Quad Cities (ICQC) project near 14800 Lebanon Road – a two-story, 43,575-square-foot facility already under active construction, despite final Council approval still pending.
Speakers questioned not only the approval timeline for the large project in the neighborhood and the cultural imposition it may bring, but also the legality of the project’s funding. ICQC raised $2.4 million in under five months to purchase the 5.7-acre site and maintains an active fundraising page on LaunchGood, a platform directed specifically at Muslim donors worldwide.
ICQC had not responded to DX’s request for comment as of press time.
Fiery Public Comments Highlight Deep Divide Over Mosque and Temples
Retired Lt. Col. Larry Brock, a 29-year combat veteran and A-10 Warthog pilot who said he lived under Sharia law while stationed in Saudi Arabia, addressed the Council directly on the mosque proposal.
“I have fought Islam and the jihad my entire adult life… Islam believes the world is theirs to rule. We would not have allowed the SS to build a recruiting center… nor should we allow Islam to build the same here in the United States,” Brock told the Council.
“Are you willing to stand up to this hostile ideology… Will Frisco be remembered as the city that stood up and turned the tide on the Muslim invasion, or will you choose the path of appeasement?” Brock asked.
Another speaker, Joel Teemi, who traced his lineage to Sam Houston and Davy Crockett and says he was kidnapped and held hostage by Islamic supremacists in the Middle East in 2021 while ministering to families of the 21 Christians beheaded by ISIS on a Libyan beach, left little room for nuance.
Having preached across 58 countries and raised children, he says he lost friends to Islamic violence. Teemi told the Council, “I don’t want to bring a mosque to Texas ever. We shouldn’t have one here. It’s incompatible with what it means to be an American.”
Supporters of the projects spoke throughout the night about the importance of the new religious sites, defending them and their impact on the nearby communities. Several Indian American residents and Muslim residents pushed back against what they characterized as coordinated outside pressure – a pattern some said is consistent with prior Frisco meetings, where many speakers were self-proclaimed non-Frisco residents.
Siri Chamaraj, a Frisco-born FISD student and member of the Jain community, offered a counterpoint rooted in her own personal story. She described growing up in Frisco – sneaking downstairs at 5 a.m. on Christmas, celebrating Jain holidays alongside American traditions – as proof that the city’s diversity is a strength. She spoke in support of the Jain temple under construction near where she was born at Frisco’s Wheeler Hospital.
“I refuse to believe that our Frisco is anything short of being an inclusive and diverse community,” Chamaraj told the Council. “I read white and blue in my veins, and I have an om in my heart… God bless Frisco, and God bless America.”
Where Things Stand
With no Council action taken on Tuesday night and the project’s property rights intact, the new mosque and two new Hindu temples will continue moving through the city’s remaining approval and zoning steps – a process Mayor Cheney made clear is far from over, and one the Council appears to have little legal authority to stop.
