A proposed Islamic cemetery at Farmersville in Collin County, Texas became the subject of controversy in 2015 when local residents expressed opposition to the prospect of Muslims being buried near their town. After a consortium of local mosques purchased a plot of land outside the city limits to provide a burial ground for the county's Muslims, the local authorities unanimously granted permission for the plans. However, opposition grew among local residents and the proposals were vehemently denounced in public forums where many residents expressed strongly anti-Islamic sentiments as the basis for their opposition. Council members and planning officials reported receiving death threats and threats were also made to desecrate the site with pigs' blood and severed pigs' heads. The council emphasized that there was little it could do to prevent the cemetery going ahead, as it was bound by local and state planning regulations.
Background
Farmersville is a community of around 3,500 people located north-east of Dallas; the population is predominately white. In May 2015, the Islamic Association of Collin County (IACC), a group representing the county's five mosques, proposed to buy a 35-acre plot outside the city limits of Farmersville near the junction of U.S. Route 380 and County Road 557, close to the eastern shore of Lake Lavon, and use it primarily for a cemetery. The Muslim community currently uses Restland Cemetery in Dallas but is running out of space there.
The location was chosen as most other Collin County cities had restrictions on building cemeteries. Two acres adjoining the highway would be used for commercial purposes to help fund the cemetery's maintenance, 17.4 acres would be used for gravesites and the remainder would be used for landscaping and maintenance. The site would hold about 20,000 burial plots. The location is within Farmersville's zone of extraterritorial jurisdiction, where the city's zoning ordinances still apply. A $500,000 perpetual bond would be used to support the care and maintenance of the cemetery.
The proposal was submitted to the Farmerville Planning and Zoning Commission in May 2015 and was unanimously approved in a meeting on May 28. After the plans for the cemetery became more widely known, opposition began to grow among county residents. David J. Meeks, the pastor of the Bethlehem Baptist Church, became one of the most outspoken opponents of the cemetery proposal. Despite being rebuked by Southern Baptist officials that he was "on the wrong side of the fence" on the issue, he called Islam a "quasi-pseudo religion" and declared that he felt "the danger is so real that I must do everything I can to stop it." He claimed that the cemetery would become a Muslim enclave within the rural community: "They will expand. How can we stop a mosque or madrassa training center from going in there?".
History
Meeting of July 6, 2015
A special meeting of the commission was held on July 6 at which Meeks and others, most of whom lived outside the city limits, protested the cemetery plans. Speakers at the meeting, which was standing room only, expressed concern at how they believed Muslims were buried – which they thought might lead to contamination of the town's drinking water – and how the cemetery would look. Others claimed that the cemetery would lead to the indoctrination of Farmersville children, asserted that Muslims were "at war with us" and declared that they did not want their town to become "a Muslim dumping ground". A city council meeting held on July 14 was dominated by opposition to the cemetery, even though it was not on the agenda. More than 100 people crowded into the council chambers, with others listening from outside. One resident told the meeting, "We used to grow onions here. We sure enough don’t want to be growing bodies". Others threatened to desecrate the site by dumping pigs' blood and heads on it. No vote was taken on the proposal as it was not ready to be voted on.