A “Muslims only” pool party planned in Texas for Eid al-Adha became one of the most explosive culture-war controversies in the United States after what began as an effort to create “a comfortable environment and modest dress code for women and girls” quickly escalated into political intervention, conservative outrage, death threats against the organizer and a stormy confrontation at City Hall.
At the center of the controversy is Dr. Aminah Knight, a 43-year-old mother of six, former New York teacher and daycare and preschool director in the suburbs of Fort Worth. Knight sought to rent Epic Waters, a massive indoor water park in Grand Prairie, a city between Dallas and Fort Worth, for a private Eid al-Adha event. The park is city-owned, but operated by an outside company and regularly rented for private events by families, schools, churches and local organizations.
Knight’s idea was to allow Muslim families, especially women and girls, to celebrate at a water park without feeling out of place because of modest swimwear. She said many participants usually come to pools in burkinis or full-coverage swimsuits and are sometimes met with stares or comments.
“Yes, we swim too,” Knight said. “I wanted to create a space where Muslim girls would not have to explain themselves.”
It was not the first time Knight had organized such an event. Two years ago, it was held during regular park hours. Last year, she rented out the entire venue for a private event attended by nearly 600 people. This year, she planned to continue the tradition: several hours in a closed water park, halal food, Arabic music, a prayer area and a modest dress code. “If you want to pay about $5,000 an hour to rent the park for your community, do it,” she told critics.
The problem was the wording. The event flyer said it was intended for “Muslims only.” Knight later explained that she never intended to check people’s religion at the entrance or prevent non-Muslims from attending, but only wanted to signal to the community that the event was tailored to its needs.
The flyer, however, quickly moved beyond the local community and was picked up by conservative influencers, podcasts and right-wing media. A local conservative host asked what would have happened if someone had advertised an event for “Christians or Jews only,” while BlazeTV claimed the party was part of the “Islamization” of Texas.
'Muslim only event'
Dr. Aminah Knight
Knight quickly changed the wording. Instead of “Muslims only,” the updated notice said the event was open to “anyone willing to respect a modest dress code” and that people of other faiths were also invited to join the Eid celebration. The city of Grand Prairie initially stood by the event, saying the park is rented for private gatherings. Then Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, intervened.
Abbott sent the city an ultimatum and threatened to revoke more than half a million dollars in state grants if the event was not canceled. He argued that the event amounted to religious discrimination in a public facility and compared the situation to a municipal pool event advertised as being for “whites only.”
“This is an event that excludes the general public and constitutes blatant religious discrimination funded by taxpayer money,” Abbott wrote. “It is unconstitutional. Public facilities are not meant only for a subset of residents.” Hours later, the city announced the event had been canceled.
Abbott’s intervention came against the backdrop of a broader fight he has waged against Muslim institutions and organizations in Texas. In recent months, the governor has attacked EPIC City, a planned Muslim housing development in the Dallas area that was portrayed on the right as an attempt to create a Muslim enclave that would impose Sharia law. The project’s developers denied the claims and said the community would be open to people of all faiths.
Abbott has also declared CAIR, one of the largest Muslim civil rights organizations in the United States, a “foreign terrorist organization” at the state level, even though the federal government does not classify it as such.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers in Texas protested Abbott’s handling of the pool party case, accusing him of targeting the Muslim community. They noted that public facilities are routinely rented to churches, Christian youth groups and other religious organizations without state threats to revoke funding.
For Knight, however, the cancellation was only the beginning of the crisis. Her personal phone number appeared on the flyer, and she began receiving calls, racist messages and threats. In one message, a man could be heard shouting: “Aminah Knight will die tonight. Islam is not going to survive in my America.”
The situation deteriorated to the point that her husband, Imam Muhammad Abdullah, slept in his car outside his wife’s daycare for several nights while armed, to protect the site from a possible attack.
The confrontation reached its peak at a news conference at Grand Prairie City Hall, where Abdullah, civil rights activists and Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy demanded answers over the cancellation. Almost immediately, anti-Muslim protesters shouted at them: “Get that out of this country. This is America, this is a Christian nation.”
They called Abdullah an “evil demon” and told him to “be ashamed” of himself. Later, during a City Council meeting, protesters took the podium and declared that “all Muslims will burn in hell.” Knight, who was sitting in the audience, shouted back: “We love Jesus,” referring to Jesus’ status as a prophet in Islam.
By the end of the evening, Knight left City Hall in tears. The party would not take place, and the quiet life she had hoped to return to no longer felt guaranteed.
“I was born here in the U.S. and I belong here. I am proud to be both Muslim and American,” she said. “For a long time, I just wanted to go back to my quiet life. But after all these people brought out what was inside them, all this hatred and negative energy in public, we have to talk about it. In the end, we still have to live here together.”