San Diego Mosque Shooting is a Culmination of Normalized Islamophobic Sentiment

posted on: May 27, 2026

By Jake Harris / Arab America Contributing Writer

The Shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that took the lives of three people has sent reverberations throughout the U.S’s Muslim population, as well as the Arab-American community. Islamic faith leaders throughout the country called for action on Islamophobia. Alarm bells have been sounded as hate inspired incidents have reached a fever pitch throughout the country. Abdullah Tahiri, president of the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego said the events “did not take place in a vacuum”. The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported its highest numbers of complaints of bias and discrimination against Muslims since 1996. A manifesto discovered that allegedly belongs to the perpetrator discusses a wide range of hateful ideology. Ideology that goes beyond Islamophobia and expands into the realms of antisemitism, white supremacy, as well as hatred of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

Islamophobic Rhetoric in Congress

The anti-Muslim rhetoric among politicians in Washington D.C. has reached levels that have far exceeded simply fighting religious extremism and advancing national security. There has been consistent portrayal of Arab or Muslim politicians as supportive of groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Tommy Tuberville, former Auburn University football coach and member of congress quoted a picture depicting the September 11th terrorist attacks next to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani praying with Muslim faith leaders at City Hall. He quoted the post by saying “the enemy is within our gates”. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee posted on X that Muslims “do not belong in American society”. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson was given the opportunity to strongly condemn the rhetoric but chose to chalk the comments up to a response to fears of Sharia Law. Such a thing has failed to materialize. It has not stopped lawmakers from preemptively drafting up legislation to ban it. Muslims may practice Islamic law privately in civil arbitration and marriage disputes if they voluntarily choose to. However, Islamic law holds no weight, supremacy or equality parallel to federal or state law in the United States court system. 

Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, members of congress with Somalian and Palestinian descent respectively, have been subject to consistent Islamophobic rhetoric from colleagues in Washington. Rep. Omar was recently called a “Muslim terrorist” by colleague Randy Fine of Florida. It was in response to her stating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is guilty of war crimes in Gaza. Netanyahu has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. There has been a potent narrative that these congresswomen are disloyal to the United States due to their background. 

Responsibility of Those With A Platform

It would be inaccurate to blame politicians comments alone for the actions of the alleged gunmen in San Diego, as the shooters had their own free will to make their own decisions, but rhetoric from people with a platform matters, words can have real life consequences, and excessive hate and scapegoating of religious and ethnic groups has shown to have devastating consequences historically. Since the Gaza War, Israel-Lebanon War , and the U.S-Iran War, there has been an increase in reported incidents involving Anti-Arab sentiment, Islamophobia, and Antisemitism. Polarization and extremism have resulted from the intense emotions that so many Americans who are connected to this region of the world feel. 

In the coming weeks and months, the investigative authorities are likely to uncover further information that will make the further backstory of the case more evident. Incidents like San Diego’s shooting cause a considerable amount of fear in faith communities throughout the country. It is up to authorities to convince the public that they are truly doing as much as they possibly can to curb the concerning rise in violent hate crimes throughout the country.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.