Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.
“They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s.
A report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington DC-based thinktank, found that the targeting of El-Sayed increased twentyfold since the election earlier this month.
“What we are seeing right now is a very organized and coordinated campaign to generate fear and hysteria about Muslims for electoral gain, to justify domestic policies, and build support for foreign wars,” says Raqib Naik, executive director of the CSOH.
“The idea that Muslims are coming to ‘take over’ America is more mainstream. It is a continuation of post-9/11 Islamophobia, but in many ways, it has become uglier and more blatant. We are now at a point where 65 members of Congress have formed a so-called ‘Sharia-Free America caucus.’”