San Diego Muslim community has growing concern about new era of fostering hate

The May 18 shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego (ICSD) claimed the lives of three men, but authorities said it could have been worse.

Forsyth County, North Carolina, District Attorney Jim O’Neill said the two teenage gunmen planned to target two other locations.

“Their plan that day was to commit mass murders not only at the mosque. But to follow up at a local Jewish temple,” he said. That included targeting Black students at a local high school.

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The intended temple is the Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue, about 1.5 miles away from the Islamic Center.

In a statement to KPBS, Rabbi Barney Kasdan said he was “deeply grieved” by the attack

“We are also saddened to now learn that our messianic synagogue is mentioned in the attacker’s manifesto, but we will continue to stand against all forms of hate with the light and love found in our faith,” he said.

Tazheen Nizam, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, San Diego (CAIR), said she was not surprised the gunmen had other targets.

“People who hate a certain type of community ... usually hate other communities as well. We saw that when the attack on the Chabad Poway happened,” she said. “Right before that, the same person had tried to burn down a mosque in Escondido.”

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Local Muslim and Arab leaders say they were blindsided by a city resolution defining antisemitism that they feared could be weaponized against critics of Israel — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A San Diego Unified School District spokesperson said it was not notified that any of its schools were intended targets. One of the gunmen, however, was a student at Madison High School, about a five-minute drive from ICSD.

ICSD Imam Taha Hassane said hatred online is now turning into real-world bullets.

“This is unfortunately the new norm that we are experiencing here in the United States of America,” he said. “White Supremacy is on the rise.”

And specifically with regard to Islam, Nizam says that hatred has been boiling since the Sept. 11 attack 25 years ago.

“Post 9/11, there has been an increased amount of Islamophobia year after year, decade after decade, against Muslims,” she said. “Muslims have been targeted for being different in public spaces, discriminated against in workspaces, harassed and bullied at schools.”

The way to combat hate and Islamophobia is through education and engaging in multicultural and interfaith work, Hassane said.

“This is how we can combat any type of phobia, any type of hatred that resides right here in our society,” he said.