When "Muslim Only" Meets Public Property: The Grand Prairie Water Park Case
A group planned to rent a public water park for a "Muslim only" celebration. The governor's intervention pointed clearly to where religious accommodation ends and illegal exclusion begins.
Grand Prairie, Texas canceled a June 1 Eid celebration at its city-owned Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark after Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withhold $530,000 in state funding. The event, organized by Aminah Knight to celebrate the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha, was initially advertised as “Muslim only” in promotional materials before being revised to emphasize modest dress requirements.
Abbott cited the early version of the flyer, arguing that reserving a taxpayer-funded facility for a single religious group violated constitutional principles. The city canceled the event hours after the governor’s deadline, raising questions about how religious accommodation operates at publicly owned facilities.
The “Muslim Only” Language
A flyer for the “Epic Eid” event initially described the celebration as “Muslim only” in two places. After the language generated controversy, organizer Aminah Knight changed the flyer to emphasize modest dress requirements instead. Knight told KERA News that the event’s goal was “to promote modesty and was never about excluding other faiths.”
The revised flyer specified that men must wear swim trunks and shirts, and women must wear “burkinis”, a full-body Islamic swimwear designed to meet religious modesty standards. Knight said she was “curating a space where people who value modesty can come together.”
Whatever Knight’s intent, the disconnect between the original promotional language and her later explanations reveals the tension at the center of the controversy. The flyer didn’t say “modesty required”, instead, it said “Muslim only.” When promotional materials for a public facility’s use communicate exclusion on the basis of religious identity, the language matters.
Public Ownership Creates Different Obligations
Epic Waters is a city-owned water park funded by taxpayers, though operated by a third-party company. Knight had rented the facility as a private event and paid associated fees. But private rental doesn’t eliminate the obligations that come with public ownership.
The governor’s office argued that Grand Prairie’s acceptance of state grants created compliance obligations with civil rights and nondiscrimination laws. Abbott’s letter warned that violating these rules could result in grant cancellation, repayment demands, and loss of future funding.
In his letter to Mayor Ron Jensen, the governor’s office drew a direct analogy:
“An event at a city-owned pool that was publicly and indiscriminately advertised as ‘Whites only’ would surely violate the Constitution... The same must be true here.”
Abbott posted on X: “Facilities funded by ALL taxpayers are not just for a subset of Texans.”
The comparison is legally instructive. Equal protection principles operate regardless of which group seeks preferential access to public resources.
How Accommodation Can Function as Exclusion
The event’s revised framing emphasized modesty rather than religion, but the practical effect merits examination. Burkinis are not standard American swimwear. They are religiously specific attire designed to meet Islamic modesty standards. Requiring them, along with swim shirts for men, creates what functions as a religious filter, even if technically open to anyone willing to comply.
Knight held a similar event in 2024 without incident. She told WCNC that she was “sad that something that was being done with such good intention, just for joy, has been turned into something that it’s not.” She called conservative pushback hypocritical, noting that “most Muslims are conservative” and that modest dress codes are “pretty conservative.”
The Line Between Liberty and Exclusion
Governor Abbott referenced a Texas law banning “Sharia Law” when addressing the celebration, and has previously targeted Muslim-related projects, including threatening funding for a Muslim-centric housing development.
But the core principle that public facilities funded by all cannot be reserved for some, operates independently of who enforces it or against whom. When cities accept state money, they accept the constraints that come with it, including nondiscrimination requirements in public accommodations.
The city issued a statement after Abbott’s ultimatum: “After further review and in the best interest of the City of Grand Prairie, the June 1 Eid event at Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has been canceled.” The decision came hours after the deadline, ending what would have been a private rental that tested the boundaries of religious accommodation at taxpayer-funded facilities.
Equal protection should play no favorites!