Hate-motivated attacks against Muslims and threats to mosques and Islamic community centers have risen alarmingly across the United States. A string of attacks and security threats in recent years has deepened fear and uncertainty within the country’s Muslim community.
Tajhin Nizam, executive director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The New Arab that the mosque used to be open to everyone. But after the attack, visitors are now screened for identification before being allowed inside.
She said many people no longer feel safe in public gathering places. Over the past two weeks alone, security incidents have occurred at two mosques in Connecticut and Michigan in the United States, with a similar incident at a mosque in Vancouver, Canada.
These repeated attacks and threats have made many Muslims across North America anxious even about their normal daily routines. Concerns about copycat attacks tend to rise further after any major incident.
In a 2025 report, CAIR said it received 8,658 complaints of discrimination and bias incidents against Muslims and Arabs in 2024 — the highest since it began recording such data in the 1990s. About 7.5% of these complaints were direct hate crimes. The organization said this year’s data so far points to a similar scale of anti-Islamic incidents.
Statements by political leaders have also fueled the situation. The report noted that after taking office for his first term, US President Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority countries through his first executive order. His recent military posture toward Iran and his remarks about Minnesota’s Somali community have also been accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment.
Over the past four years, Minnesota has been the hardest-hit state for mosque attacks and threats in the US, with 44 incidents recorded, compared with eight in California over the same period.
Last Tuesday, US immigration authorities (ICE) detained an imam from Minnesota’s Somali community in Texas. Details of the reason for his detention have not yet been disclosed.
CAIR-Minnesota deputy executive director Adan Suleiman told The New Arab that such incidents are now hitting closer to home. “I constantly know someone who has been affected in some way,” he said, adding that people cannot live normally without fear. “When someone goes to worship God at a mosque, the question still arises in their mind — will something happen to me too?”
Facing rising threats, mosques across the United States have stepped up security — some improving fire-prevention systems, others hiring armed security guards. Muslim leaders say, however, that support from local non-Muslim communities has been a source of hope during this difficult time, with many neighbors sending flowers and messages of solidarity to mosques after attacks.
La Mirada mosque in Southern California recently received a threatening letter as well. Mosque president Rezaur Rahman said that despite the San Diego attack, they will proceed with a planned “open house” program this coming October. “We don’t just live in this society — we are part of this society,” he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report