Anti-Muslim bigotry in the US has continued to rise through 2026, following the pattern set the year before, and the environment it has produced is harsher now than at any point in the recent past. Much of that climate has been built deliberately rather than arising from events on its own. In April 2026, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) documented how 89 elected officials assembled a coordinated anti-Muslim campaign over thirteen months, publishing 1,111 social media posts, introducing eight bills, and forming a Sharia-Free America Caucus that grew to 65 members.
These campaigns draw on conspiracy theories about Muslim religious practices, mosques, and the supposed imposition of “Sharia law,” all reinforcing a broader narrative of an impending Muslim takeover. This narrative echoes the Great Replacement theory and intensifies around major events, including conflicts in the Middle East and the growing visibility of Muslims running for public office.
Online, that bigotry and the conspiratorial narratives carrying it have escalated in successive waves. Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on August 4 produced the most concentrated wave of the summer. In the seven days that followed, posts targeting El-Sayed with anti-Muslim bigotry rose to 20 times their pre-primary rate, while overall anti-Muslim posts on X reached their highest single-day total since June 1. This data brief examines the scale of both surges and the rhetoric driving them.
Findings
- Anti-Muslim hate targeting El-Sayed jumped twentyfold after the primary. Posts naming him averaged 155 a day between June 1 and August 3. Between August 4 and 10 they averaged 3,099 a day, an increase of 1,895%.
- Seven days produced more abuse than the preceding seven months. The 21,690 posts recorded between August 4 and 10 account for 56.7% of all 38,280 Islamophobic posts targeting El-Sayed since January 1.
- Overall anti-Muslim bigotry on X (formerly Twitter) hit its highest single day of the summer on August 5, the day when El-Syed was declared winner of the primary: 11,883 posts, 115% above the previous 30-day average and the highest daily figure recorded since June 1.
- The surge has not subsided. Six days after the result, general anti-Muslim volume remains 59% above its pre-primary baseline, and daily abuse aimed at El-Sayed remains an order of magnitude above its June-July level.
Hate Directed at Abdul El-Sayed
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) analyzed 38,280 Islamophobic posts naming Abdul El-Sayed, published between January 1 and August 10, 2026 across X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky.
Measured against the June 1- August 3 baseline of 155 posts per day, the post-primary week represents a 20-fold increase. Measured against the January-May daily rate of 44 posts, it is 70 times higher. Volume peaked on August 5 at 6,923 posts in a single day, the day Stevens conceded and the result was widely reported.
Figure 1. Average Daily Volume of Islamophobic Posts Targeting Abdul El-Sayed (June 1-August 10, 2026)
Platforms: X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky
Figure 2. Average Daily Volume of Islamophobic Posts Targeting Abdul El-Sayed (August 1-10, 2026)
Platforms: X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky
Themes
The content is organized around a small number of recurring anti-Muslim tropes and conspiracy theories, applied to him because of his religious identity:
- Terrorism and Muslim Brotherhood allegations: Posts allege that El-Sayed has connections to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and accuse him of antisemitism. Widely shared posts describe him as “an Islamic jihadist.” This is the single largest theme in post-primary peak.
- Sharia-takeover trope: A substantial share of posts claim El-Sayed intends to impose Islamic law.
- Communism and red scare: It’s a recurring strand and pairs anti-Muslim conspiracy with Cold War language and claims El-Sayed as part of an alliance of “Islamists and communists” said to be taking over the Democratic Party and the country.
- Guilt by association with Muslim civil society: Many posts frame campaign contributions from Muslim groups and individuals as terrorist financing.
- Dual loyalty and anti-American framing. El-Sayed is characterized as fundamentally foreign and hostile to the US, with 9/11 and other terror attacks invoked as rhetorical devices.
- Remigration: Posts advocated “remigration,” the mass removal of Muslims from Western countries, as the only solution to a claimed “Islamic takeover,” “invasion,” and “conquest”.
These themes are not new. CSOH observed a closely similar pattern during New York City’s Democratic mayoral elections last year, when Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy drew the same combination of terrorism allegations, Sharia-takeover claims, dual-loyalty framing and accusations of communism. The repetition across two contests a year apart, in different cities and at different levels of office, points to a stable repertoire that activates whenever a Muslim candidate becomes competitive or wins office.
Overall Anti-Muslim Hate Across X
Separately, CSOH tracked 409,640 posts promoting anti-Muslim bigotry and harmful conspiracy theories on X in the US between June 1 and August 10.
Figure 3. Posts promoting anti-Muslim bigotry on X (June 1-August 10, 2026)
On August 5, following El-Sayed’s primary victory, volume reached its highest single-day level of the summer and exceeded 10,000 posts for the first time.
The content of this wider dataset follows the same conspiratorial architecture as the anti-Muslim hate targeting El-Sayed. Its central claim is that the US is being “invaded” and progressively Islamized, with “Sharia law” portrayed as an instrument of this alleged takeover. Within this narrative, users call for Muslims to be deported, Muslims and Islam to be banned, and for “remigration” to be adopted as the only remedy to the purported invasion.
Based on the evidence from this primary, last year’s New York mayoral election, and the persistently elevated level of anti-Muslim hate, these patterns of bigotry and conspiracy are likely to intensify as the 2026 midterm election campaign progresses.