Grapevine-Coffeyville Independent School District in Grapevine, Texas, has ended negotiations with a national nonprofit Muslim athletics competition for use of a high school to host the Islamic Games after a public outcry from Texas politicians.
As reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the athletic event was scheduled at Colleyville Heritage High School for May 9-10. The organization was in negotiations for a rental agreement with the school district. However, state lawmakers and local leaders posted on social media last weekend that the organization’s sponsors had ties to the Council on American Islamic Relations, which Texas governor Greg Abbott designated a foreign terrorism organization in November.
The school district told the Star-Telegram in a statement that officials learned Monday “that an organization listed as a sponsor of the Islamic Games in North Texas has been declared a Terrorist Organization by the Governor of Texas.”
The district spokesperson said state law bars any governmental entity from entering into a contract with such a group. “Thus, GCISD provided notice that it is severing the negotiations for the use of District properties for the 2026 Islamic Games,” the spokesperson said.
According to its website, Islamic Games is a “premier Muslim sports and athletic event in North America, dedicated to promoting physical excellence, unity and community development” to youths. Launched in 1989 and rebranded and relaunched in 2006, the games travel from city to city hosting competitive team and individual sports that include boys' and girls' soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, cricket, flag football, track and field and archery. The program is geared toward Islamic centers, sports academies and Muslim schools and has seen competitions hosted this year in Chicago, Houston, Michigan, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
As reported by Fousia Abdullahi of the Star-Telegram, state representatives on Monday began to post online about the Colleyville school being the location of an Islamic Games event, stating that sponsors are tied to CAIR. When Abbott declared CAIR a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization on Nov. 18, he accused the civil rights group of wanting to “forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.’ ”
CAIR called the designation defamatory and sued Abbott. Sameeha Rizvi, a CAIR Texas civic engagement organizer, said that this is happening more frequently because hate is a “million-dollar industry” that not only impacts Muslims, but also Black and Latino Texans, Abdullahi reported.
“Don’t let this moment isolate you and make you feel that you can’t do anything,” Rizvi said. “Because there is much to be done, and right now with the opportunity we have to make a change in all facets, in civic engagement especially.”
"This year, the Texas Legislature adopted two bills that make the terrorism designation significant," Abdullahi wrote. "SB-17 bans transnational criminal organizations from purchasing and acquiring land, and HB-4211 bans residential property developments like EPIC City, a large community proposed by an Islamic group near Dallas."
Keller mayor Armin Mizani, who is running for Texas House District 98, denounced the Islamic Games in a press release Tuesday. He cited the 2022 hostage standoff at a Colleyville synagogue. “And now a high school campus just down the road will be the site of an event sponsored by alleged terror supporters,” Mizani said.
Two weeks ago, per Abdullahi's report, Mizani had proposed that Keller formally reject sharia law. The City Council approved a modified declaration instead that affirmed that the Constitution and Texas law “are the sole sources of legal authority.”
