At 11:04 p.m. on May 20, amid the Texas Funeral Service Commission’s probe into a North Texas mosque accused of operating as a funeral home without a license, the head commissioner of Texas’ funeral regulator Kristin Tips sent then-executive director Scott Bingaman a graphic made by the Shirion Collective, a self-described pro-Israel “surveillance network.”
It compared the tenets of Judaism and Christianity to the rules of Islam and Muslim countries, without context: that the Quran states non-Muslims are “subhuman,” and that touching the holy book as a non-Muslim, “can mean death,” according to text messages obtained by KERA News and first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
With it, Tips shared a link to a May 9 video by YouTuber Tal Oran in which he criticized a clip from an unnamed podcast discussing EPIC City, the East Plano Islamic Center’s planned development in Collin County. Oran said the proposed community — which developers have said will not exclude non-Muslims — would breed “terrorists.”
Gov. Greg Abbott had praised TFSC’s decision to investigate EPIC two months prior. It became one of five state investigations into the mosque, spurred by the negative attention the EPIC City plan attracted online earlier this year, primarily in right-wing circles.
All Texas Funeral Service Commission board members, including Tips, are Abbott appointees. Bingaman joined TFSC as executive director, the top staff position, in September.
“Not a fan… tough to be tolerant when taught hate,” Bingaman replied to the graphic and YouTube link.
“Agreed!” Tips wrote back. “Look what happened last Thursday at literally the 11th hour to appeal the Land takeover lol through Cemetery”, seemingly referring to a bill Tips and her husband Robert “Dick” Tips supported that would no longer allow cemeteries to be established within city or county limits.
Earlier messages from Tips to Bingaman imply State Rep. Suleman Lalani, D-Sugar Land, informally voted against that bill. Lalani voted it out of committee, according to meeting minutes, but it failed to pass in the last days of the legislative session.
Tips then shared an image of Lalani in the Capitol and a screenshot of Lalani’s Instagram post the day he took the oath of office in January, which he did with his hand on a Quran as opposed to Christian lawmakers’ usual choice of a Bible. Lalani became one of the first Muslim state lawmakers in Texas when he was elected in 2022.
Tips also shared a link to the May 6 episode of the Chad Prather Show, where the conservative political commentator questioned whether EPIC City and the Texas Legislature’s recognition of “Pakistan Day” this year indicated a “slow and steady creep of cultural replacement” pushing out Judeo-Christian roots. The messages show no response from Bingaman.
When KERA reached out to Tips for comment, she gave the phone to a person who said in Spanish that she was Tips’ daughter. Tips declined to comment, the person said. KERA News also reached out to Lalani and Abbott’s office and will update this story with any response.
Anti-Muslim sentiment in Texas
EPIC sued the commission in early July to resume its funeral and burial services. The suit alleged TFSC had no grounds to investigate the mosque, and the commission was violating EPIC's religious rights.
Weeks later, TFSC walked back some of its claims but stated the investigation into EPIC is ongoing. A spokesperson for Abbott said at the time the governor’s office was unaware of the letter when KERA News reached out for comment.
Bingaman, when reached for comment on this story, referred KERA News to his attorney, who could not immediately be reached by phone Saturday.
The newly revealed texts come amid a growing climate of anti-Muslim sentiment in Texas. Most recently, the chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party, Bo French, targeted Democratic state House Rep. Salman Bhojani, who represents parts of Arlington, Euless and Bedford.
In several posts on X, French called Bhojani an “anti-American democrat”, said he was trying to “further jihad,” and called on federal officials to denaturalize and deport the lawmaker, who is originally from Pakistan — which French referred to in his posts as, “the same place Osama Bin Laden hid”.
French later asked his followers if the law should be changed to “forbid foreign born people from holding any elected office.”
French also reposted tweets from Amy Mek, founder of the conservative outlet Rise Align Ignite Reclaim foundation, which posts anti-Muslim content and has been characterized as an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Mek’s previous posts on EPIC City sparked backlash against the development. Mek accused EPIC of promoting Sharia law, while spouting negative rhetoric about Islam.
Following those posts and the ensuing controversy online, Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton announced state investigations into the project. Abbott referred to EPIC City as a “sharia city.”
EPIC City is a planned 402-acre development in unincorporated Collin and Hunt counties that would be roughly 40 miles northeast of Dallas near the city of Josephine, and would include a new mosque, more than 1,000 single and multi-family homes, a K-12 faith-based school and other amenities.
In addition to the claims EPIC is operating as an unlicensed funeral home, Abbott and Paxton allege without evidence that the EPIC City project could discriminate against non-Muslims in violation of the Texas Fair Housing Act. They also claim the project could cause potential financial harm to investors and may be violating Texas consumer protection laws.
Abbott also launched a criminal investigation into the project. He and Paxton have provided little to no evidence of wrongdoing.
‘Rein her in’
Bingaman worked with Tips in January to send the governor’s office a list of rules and regulations seen as harming small businesses in the funeral industry that the commission wanted to be repealed. TFSC wanted state lawmakers to overturn a Texas Supreme Court decision that allows relatives of the dead to recover damages for a funeral provider’s alleged mishandling of the body.
The ruling allowed for lawsuits that “place unbearable financial strain on family-owned small businesses, driving insurance premiums and deductibles to unsustainable levels,” Bingaman wrote. The provision appeared in the first version of Republican Sens. Tan Parker and Lois Kolkhorst’s Senate Bill 2721, which ultimately didn’t pass.
In a letter to commissioners right before he was fired in June, Bingaman alleged that Tips failed to tell him that capping non-economic damages in funeral home lawsuits and other proposed measures would benefit her and her husband's own funeral business, Mission Park Funeral Chapels, Cemeteries, and Crematories. He raised concerns multiple times — including with the governor’s office — that Tips was unlawfully using TFSC staff and resources to advocate for bills in the Legislature that would benefit her, according to the lawsuit challenging his firing.
Bingaman’s messages to Tips, however, indicate some initial willingness to defend the cap on funeral home lawsuit damages. In an email the afternoon of May 5, San Antonio Express-News writer Patrick Danner asked TFSC why it was “advocating for caps on liability for funeral home blunders and how that squares with its mission of protecting the public,” according to a copy of the email attached to Bingaman’s lawsuit.
Bingaman texted Tips letting her know Danner’s email required an urgent response before the publication of his story.
“I know the answer but hope you could add a little more detail other than protecting small mom and pop funeral homes that are being targeted by (personal) injury attorneys and frivolous lawsuits,” Bingaman wrote.
Bingaman had voiced his worries about getting too involved with lobbyists to Tips before this, the texts show. Mike Toomey, a lobbyist representing the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, reached out to Bingaman in March asking for the two of them and association president Scott Joslove to meet and discuss TFSC’s recently imposed moratorium on transferring cadavers and anatomical specimen out of state.
Bingaman felt there was something “substantially wrong” with this kind of meeting, he told Tips.
“I don’t enact policy. I only execute on it so I don’t know what good this will do for him to meet with me cause I’m just going to tell him no”.
Attorney Christopher Burnett, who Bingaman hired in May, told KERA News he and fellow staff attorney Sarah Sanders warned Bingaman it wasn’t right for a commissioner to use their position to lobby. Bingaman then brought the concerns about Tips’ behavior to Abbott’s budget and policy advisor Alex Aragon, Burnett said, and the response from the governor’s office was to “rein her in.”
“I heard it,” Burnett said. “‘Rein her in, you need to talk to her.’ So, the governor's office put the burden on Bingaman to try and stop Tips from doing all her nonsense, right? And so, Scott had a conversation with her, and apparently it did not go well.”
Sanders said she witnessed this and personally spoke to the governor’s office about Tips, but staff began ignoring Bingaman’s calls. She called on Abbott to take action.
“The people suffering from this are the people of Texas,” Sanders said. “Because every time you go into a funeral home and something goes wrong and you feel like something isn't done about it, it's because of this dysfunction.”
In a meeting July 21, commissioners said they fired Bingaman for his "lack of candor" and poor communication and leadership. That same day, Burnett and Sanders were fired.
The lawyers said they weren’t given cause but alleged it was because of their backing of Bingaman's claims against the commission. TFSC sued the attorneys over their public accusations and for allegedly recording conversations among staff, but the commission dropped that suit less than a week later without prejudice, meaning it could be filed again.
Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org or Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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