McKinney city council greenlights mosque site plan amid both support, derision from community members

The McKinney City Council voted late Wednesday night to approve a site plan for a new mosque after a marathon meeting marked by outbursts and hours of public comment.

All seven council members voted unanimously to approve the site plan, telling residents the vote was procedural — simply on whether or not the plan fits the city's ordinances.

McKinney neighbors were split on the issue, with more than 100 people giving public comment, lasting more than five-and-a-half hours.

U.S. Representative Keith Self (R-McKinney) cautioned the council against the plans. 

"The freedom to choose our faith or not does not exist in political Islam. Ask any Muslim what the penalty is for leaving political Islam. It's death," he said. "I have any number of videos of imams in America, modern-day America, preaching sedition, open sedition, against the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this land."

But former McKinney mayor George Fuller said the mosque's members are part of the city like everyone else.

"For American Muslim neighbors at McKinney Islamic Association, sharia is understood as a personal religious framework," Fuller said. "Yes, every religion and every culture has its extremists and radicals, and they should be condemned wherever they exist, but that is not who we're talking about tonight. We're talking about families who have spent decades serving this community and raising their children here, and demonstrating their actions by the values they live by."

The proposed project would sit near Virginia Parkway and Crutcher Crossing. The McKinney Islamic Association says it wants to build a dedicated prayer area, gym, classrooms, cafeteria and community space. The group wants to develop the property to accommodate its growing community.

City officials said there are still other plans to review before the mosque is built, but this vote was a major step in the process.