Despite having celebrity backers including Maye Musk (Elon’s mother) and Will Smith, a Dubai-based developer’s housing project in Texas was abandoned after it became a local political flashpoint.
The controversy surrounding SEE Holding’s The Sustainable City had nothing to do with solar panels and bike lanes — it was about religion. The developer’s Dubai version of The Sustainable City has a mosque, as do most neighborhoods in the Middle East, but for many Texans this reeked of “Sharia” encroachment, even though SEE Holding denied it planned to build a mosque in Texas and said the characterization of its project was inaccurate.
“There will be no ‘Sharia city’ in Texas under my watch,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who opened an investigation last month. SEE Holding later decided to abandon the project.