You heard them before you saw them.
The Houston Chronicle reports Muslim families pulling into the MAS Katy Center for prayer on a Friday -- the holiest day of the week for Muslims -- would hear the squealing of pigs and the cheers of spectators watching the animals race around a track.
They were used to it by then, though. The mosque's next-door neighbor had been holding weekly pig races for months, knowing that Muslims are restricted from eating pork. The events reinforced a message that the Muslim community was not welcome in the neighborhood where the mosque's leaders purchased property in 2006.
Thirteen years later, suspicion and hostility among some have turned to compassion and concern within the broader community.
A few days after someone fired gunshots at the mosque in January, neighbors stood at the parking lot entrance with flowers and words of love and gratitude.
It took years of patient effort -- of invitations to meals and sports events, of shared day-care services and interfaith discussions -- for the leaders of Katy's emerging Muslim community to win the hearts and minds of their neighbors. The outpouring of support after the shooting was the clearest evidence yet of the transformed relationship.
"Wallahi (I swear to God) I'm amazed," said Hesham Ebaid, director of MAS Katy Center. "This is a good story. It doesn't happen too often."
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Baker Road snakes through the heart of Windsor Park Estates, one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the Katy area. The road borders gated communities where brick houses with pristine lawns sell for $600,000 to $1.5 million. It takes you by a perfectly green park dotted with lush trees. Occasionally, runners or parents pushing strollers pass through.
A motorist approaching the road's sharp bend to the right might have to look hard to see MAS Katy Center rising behind the long, brick wall that wraps around the mosque. The center, which sits behind a gate, is painted a welcoming pastel yellow. Marble steps lead to tall, wooden doors carved with intricate floral patterns.
When Yousuf Allam bought the 11-acre lot in 2006, it was just a patch of woods with a small home at the front of the property. That home served as the mosque until the larger center was completed in 2015.
Almost immediately after Allam purchased the property, the problems started.
Craig Baker, whose marble and granite business borders the mosque (and whose family Baker Road is named after), says that one of the mosque leaders told him, unprompted, "We don't think your marble will look good with the mosque here." Ebaid says Baker had told the man, "This is a residential area, you guys are going to bring cars and parking -- don't you think it will be better to buy somewhere else?"
Regardless, Baker and Ebaid agree that this leader told Baker he should move out if he doesn't like the mosque.
"I said I'll be here until the day I die," Baker said.
At a public meeting soon after the exchange, Baker said a Muslim community member called him a liar when confronted about telling him to move out.
Baker responded by buying a 40-foot by 20-foot sign that said, "COMING SOON. Friday night pig races." He set up stands in his yard, blared country music and gave out free beer every Friday night for months. CNN and Al Jazeera were among the national news outlets drawn to the story of a mosque's pig-racing, next-door neighbor.
Baker said the pig races were intended as a joke, and got blown out of proportion. They ended about a year after they started.
"Everyone was trying to make it into something it wasn't, like it was something about race or religion or whatever, but it had nothing to do with that," he said. "My reputation is everything. I was just furious because they called me a liar."
Baker was far from the only neighbor to have issues with the newcomers.
An anti-mosque page featuring a cartoon pig and a running tally of terrorism victims was posted on the internet, the Houston Chronicle reported in 2006, and about 300 neighbors attended meetings to discuss the new mosque, raising concerns about traffic congestion, flooding, possible adverse impact on property values and the "unknown."
"We look at mosques in other parts of town and they have gold domes," Karen Olson, then-president of the Windsor Park Estates Neighborhood Association, told the Chronicle in 2006. "We're concerned about what we can do as a community to get a development that fits in and doesn't ruin things."
Olson could not be reached for comment for this story.
In 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported that a 150-member group called Preserving the Lifestyles and Neighborhoods of Katy, or PLANK, continued to raise concerns about flooding, traffic, noise and light pollution.
One PLANK member, Laura Hughes, told the Chronicle she was concerned about terrorism.
"They are part of the American Muslim Society, which has terrorist ties," she said then, pointing to allegations in news reports that the society had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which some brand as extreme. "If this is not the premise of their religion, why are there so many radicals?"
Now, though, Hughes says most of the opposition at the time was not due to anti-Muslim sentiment.
"My one and only concern was disruption to our neighborhood because of traffic and other situations," she said.
Main Alqudah, an Islamic Studies lecturer and founder of the center's Islamic school Guidance College, said the community vehemently opposes terrorism.
"We have zero tolerance when it comes to terrorism or irresponsible behaviors," he said. "We teach our kids how to be civilized people and how to be moderate Muslims."
Despite the negativity, the Muslim community did not give up on winning over its neighbors.
Mosque members arranged with the Windsor Park Estates Homeowner Association to host an open house so people could ask questions and address concerns. They invited neighbors to early breakfasts and late dinners that bookended a day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. They invited children in the neighborhood to sports events. They launched a day-care center that was open to the non-Muslim community.
Community members got involved in interfaith groups to dispel misconceptions about Islam, and they invited non-Muslim neighbors to sermons. The man who called Baker a liar took the mic at one of the pig races and publicly apologized to him, Baker said. Ebaid bought a home in the neighborhood.
"We started a systematic approach to infiltrate the community around us and change the views, and it did work," Ebaid said. "We made a commitment to them that we will not do anything that will negatively affect the community -- as a matter of fact, we are going to add to the community."
A high-quality facility, Ebaid told neighbors, would increase their home values. They built a large enough parking lot to avoid street parking. The center starts quiet hours at 9 p.m. every day. Neighbors are notified of special events such as Muslim holidays that might cause more traffic and noise.
The Muslim community even removed a gold dome from the mosque design plans, deferring to neighborhood wishes.
"Being transparent with the community-at-large and giving them free access to our facility whenever they want makes a big difference," Alqudah said. "We believe in integrating Islam and Islamic principles in the community. to serve the society at large."
That commitment to integration, some say, sets MAS Katy Center apart from other mosques and Muslim communities that may have a tendency to be more insular.
Over time, the outrage and complaints subsided. In 2014, Ebaid said, Baker commended the mosque director for the successful outreach program -- and sold more than 9 acres of his land to the organization to expand its parking lot.
Baker said members of the Muslim community have been great, responsive neighbors.
"Everything is hunky-dory," he said.
Two signs -- one with the cross and Star of David, another stating "Jesus is our Lord" -- still face the mosque from Baker's property, which he says he put up for a friend. Baker asked if the signs were offensive and offered to take them down immediately if so.
"(The signs) don't bother me," Ebaid said with a belly laugh. "You love Jesus, we love Jesus, too. He's our prophet."
When Ebaid discovered two bullet holes grooved into the exterior wall of his beloved Islamic Center on Jan. 14, his heart grew heavy.
"This is a $3 million, state-of-the-art facility," he said. "Walking in there and seeing that hole in the building, it's hard. Why would you do that without even knowing us? Why would you shoot our symbol of peace and worship?"
Two bullet holes were also found in the windshield of a contractor's truck parked in the mosque's parking lot overnight. Law enforcement officials believe the shots were fired around 3 a.m. the same day.
"Since the Trump era, we saw an increase in Islamophobic incidents and crime," said Sobia Siddiqui of the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I'm happy this happened when no one was there, but it's terrible it even occurred. It has a school next to it, you have children and families there."
In 2017, there were 2,599 anti-Muslim incidents and 300 anti-Muslim hate crimes nationwide, according to CAIR -- a 17 percent and 15 percent increase, respectively, from the previous year. That same year, there were 144 anti-mosque incidents -- five of which took place in Texas.
The Muslim community recently has been shaken by news of a horrific massacre on March 15 in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a gunman fatally shot 50 people and wounded dozens more at two mosques. The suspect had espoused far-right and white supremacist views. The massacre sparked vigils across the United States, including two in Houston.
"MAS Katy center is deeply saddened by the tragic incidents that happened at the mosques in New Zealand," the center's leaders wrote in an email to members. "We urge our Muslim community to remember the Prophetic tradition in the face of such calamity, which is to foster patience among ourselves, channel our emotions into productive efforts such as community building, political activism and strengthen interfaith relationship."
Meanwhile, the MAS Katy Center is raising funds for new security cameras and a guard house as the Harris County Sheriff's Office investigates the January firing of shots at the local mosque.
And yet the Muslim community's worry has been alleviated by the outpouring of support from neighbors. Other local places of worship sent letters of support, and Ebaid said he received dozens of emails and letters of encouragement from non-Muslims -- including from Baker.
"I am dead serious, I was super-sad that somebody shot at their place," Baker said.
The Friday after the shots were fired at the Katy mosque, families stood at the parking lot entrance with flowers to hand out to Muslims who finished their prayers. Another Saturday morning, a woman showed up with boxes of donuts to give to children.
"I'm amazed," Ebaid said. "You see how we started in 2006? Where we are today, people are coming and giving us flowers and thanking us for being here."
