What connects a mosque shooting in San Diego, California, to a Muslim community development in Plano? The answer is Islamophobia. While many mainstream news outlets have yet to call the May 18 shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego a hate crime, there is evidence that it is, including weapons covered in white supremacist symbols and phrases. Writings containing anti-Islamic sentiment were in the vehicle where the perpetrators, Caleb Vasquez and Cain Clark, were found. At a press conference following the shooting, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria facedscrutiny over his staunch pro-Israel and strict border-control stances contributing to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate documented a 1,450-percent surge in anti-Muslim social media posts by Republican elected officials from February 2025 to March 2026. Texas has been the epicenter of this surge through various forms of media. Aaron Reitz, a former Republican candidate for Texas attorney general who lost in the March 2026 primary, aired a television ad during his campaign pledging to target Islam. In the ad, he claimed that politicians have “imported millions of Muslims into our country” and that the result is “more terrorism, more crime, and they even want their own illegal cities in Texas to impose Sharia law.” This is a false equivalency that conflates Islamic values and Muslim identity with terrorism and criminality and is a direct reference to community developments like The Meadow.