Mosque saw growing number of threats
The shooting comes amid an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. — fueled by the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, Israel’s war in Gaza and the election of New York CIty’s first Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani, according to reports from the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Politicians have also contributed to the inflammatory rhetoric denigrating Muslim Americans, according to the CSOH. The group found that between February 2025 and March 2026, there was a 1,450% increase in the monthly average number of social media posts by Republican elected officials “targeting Muslim Americans with bigotry and conspiracy theories.”
“When you try to put a target on one community and paint them as the other and paint them as the enemy, then you will have people who would take that at face value and do something that they think is right in their own sense,” said Raqib Naik, the executive director of CSOH.
“And just a month later, what unfolded in San Diego yesterday is literally the manifestation of how hate fueled violence,” Naik said.