‘Muslim Only’ Waterpark Event Controversy Gets Even Worse After Organizer Exposed
A Texas woman who ignited a national firestorm over a religious-exclusive event at a publicly financed waterpark turns out to be running a childhood education center that shares a bizarre misspelling with a notorious Minneapolis daycare — and nobody is laughing.
Aminah Knight, the driving force behind the DFW Epic Eid organization, thought she had a plan: rent out Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie for an Eid celebration and advertise it as open to Muslim attendees only.
What she did not plan for was the entire country finding out about it.
Knight also wears another professional hat — she owns, operates, and designs the curriculum for the Excellence Early Learning Center in Hurst, a quiet Fort Worth suburb where parents trust her with their youngest children, some still in diapers.
There is just one problem. Her center’s own website introduces the facility as the “Excellence Early Learing Center” — dropping the “n” in “learning” in a typo that mirrors one previously spotted at a controversial Minneapolis daycare that made headlines of its own.
The misspelling sits at the top of the site, where first impressions are made and where parents go to decide whether a facility is worthy of their child.
Epic Waters is no ordinary community pool. The sprawling 80,000-square-foot indoor waterpark opened in 2017 after Grand Prairie residents voted in 2014 to approve a 0.25% sales tax increase to fund its $88 million construction.
A promotional flyer for the third-annual Eid event declared that “the entire waterpark has been exclusively reserved for Muslims” and mandated modest swimwear for every attendee — language that detonated across social media and cable news almost instantly.
Aminah Knight, the driving force behind the DFW Epic Eid organization, thought she had a plan: rent out Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie for an Eid celebration and advertise it as open to Muslim attendees only.
What she did not plan for was the entire country finding out about it.
Knight also wears another professional hat — she owns, operates, and designs the curriculum for the Excellence Early Learning Center in Hurst, a quiet Fort Worth suburb where parents trust her with their youngest children, some still in diapers.
There is just one problem. Her center’s own website introduces the facility as the “Excellence Early Learing Center” — dropping the “n” in “learning” in a typo that mirrors one previously spotted at a controversial Minneapolis daycare that made headlines of its own.
The misspelling sits at the top of the site, where first impressions are made and where parents go to decide whether a facility is worthy of their child.
Epic Waters is no ordinary community pool. The sprawling 80,000-square-foot indoor waterpark opened in 2017 after Grand Prairie residents voted in 2014 to approve a 0.25% sales tax increase to fund its $88 million construction.
A promotional flyer for the third-annual Eid event declared that “the entire waterpark has been exclusively reserved for Muslims” and mandated modest swimwear for every attendee — language that detonated across social media and cable news almost instantly.
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