A North Texas school district has withdrawn from hosting an Islamic-themed youth athletic event after learning that a listed sponsor had been designated a terrorist organization by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The Dallas Islamic Games had been scheduled for May 9–10 at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area. The event’s website also lists additional planned locations across the United States, including Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles, with city names displayed in both English and Arabic.
More than 60 organizations were initially listed as sponsors on the event’s website, including the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Following online criticism, the CAIR-New Jersey logo was removed from the site.
A spokesperson for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District confirmed Tuesday that district officials were aware of a request to rent school facilities for the event but said the agreement had not been finalized.
“On January 19, GCISD was made aware 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,” district spokesperson Nicole Lyons told The Christian Post. “Thus, GCISD provided notice that it is severing the negotiations for the use of District properties for the 2026 Islamic Games.”
Despite the district’s decision, Colleyville Heritage High School remained listed as a venue on the event’s website as of Tuesday. While the CAIR logo has since been removed, it remains unclear whether the district had formally approved the event before the website went live.
Salaudeen Nausrudeen, president of the Islamic Games, told the Fort Worth Report that the youth sporting event was being unfairly targeted. He said CAIR-New Jersey provided a “one-time, in-kind contribution consisting solely of complimentary drawstring bags,” which were distributed to participants, and argued that the donation did not amount to sponsorship or partnership.
Several Republican lawmakers publicly criticized CAIR’s involvement with the event. State Rep. Jeff Leach stated on social media that the Islamic Games “will not be taking place at any district properties or facilities in May.”
In November, Abbott formally designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, asserting that both groups “have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.’”
In a letter to law enforcement agencies, Abbott classified the organizations as both “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.”
