Over the past several years, Muslim Americans across the US have seen a continuous string of attacks and threats against their mosques and community centres, amid wars in the region and domestic crackdowns on civil society.
A fatal mass shooting in May at the Islamic Centre of San Diego, the city's largest mosque, by local right-wing extremists came amid an already-tense atmosphere.
"There are community members concerned about being able to be in those public spaces freely," Tazheen Nizam, executive director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a longtime resident of the city, told The New Arab .
"The mosque has always had an open-door policy. It still does, but after the attack, people have to check in at the door," she said.
In the last two weeks alone, there have been reported security incidents at US mosques in Connecticut and Michigan, as well as at a mosque in Vancouver, Canada. This continuous flow of attacks and threats has resulted in a state of unease for many ordinary Muslims in North America trying to go about their daily lives, particularly after a major incident that could inspire copycat acts.
In a 2025 report, CAIR said it had recorded the highest number of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints, 8,658, in 2024, since it began publishing data in the 1990s. Around 7.5 per cent of these complaints were related to hate crimes. The Muslim civil rights group are currently completing a new study that is expected to show a similar level of biased incidents for the last year.
Islamophobia has long been an issue in the US. However, with the 2023 outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, hate incidents against Muslims and their places of worship have risen sharply.
Hateful rhetoric by politicians has compounded this, the most high-profile being US President Donald Trump , whose first executive order in his first term was to institute a Muslim travel ban. His war on Iran, which began in late February, has also been linked to biased incidents. Around the same time, he has increased his attention on the Somali community in Minnesota, where a welfare fraud scheme has given him fodder to scapegoat an entire group.
Minnesota is by far the biggest target for attacks and threats against mosques, with 44 reported cases in the past four years, with the next highest number in California, having seen eight during the same period.
On Tuesday, Minnesota’s Somali community learned that one of their imams, a permanent resident with a green card, was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while in Texas. So far, little is known about the circumstances of the incident.
"Here in Minnesota, it's hitting closer and closer to home," Adan Suleiman, deputy executive director of CAIR-Minnesota, told TNA . As incidents add up, he has found that he's more likely to know someone who's been affected.
"People are feeling more anxious about existing without fear. When you go into a space wanting to be closer to the divine, wanting to be with your faith, you can’t help but wonder, is something going to happen to me?" he said.
Mosques across the country have increased their security, often adding reinforcements such as fireproof paint and hiring armed guards. Also, importantly for their local ties, they have received support from other local faith groups.
Mosque leaders say that in the wake of hate incidents, they are heartened by the messages of support and flowers they receive from non-Muslim neighbours.
At La Marida Masjid in southern California , which recently received threatening letters, the mosque’s president, Rezaur Rahman, says local mosques hold open houses on the first day of October and will continue to do so this year, despite the attack in San Diego.
He told TNA , “We are not just here in the community. We are the community."