Dear Petra,

Yesterday our community and nation experienced a horrifying act of violence. Three innocent souls–Amin, Mansoor, and Nadir–were killed while protecting their house of worship, a mosque that also houses a school and serves as a community center. Our prayers go out to the victims, their families, and the community at large that has been devastated. As authorities investigate this as a hate crime, I want to take a moment to ground this situation in what we know, and what ISPU is here to do.

For many of us, this tragedy was foreseen. Muslims have been on the receiving end of an unrelenting rise in anti-Muslim hate–targeted statements from policymakers, politicized legal attacks on American Muslims and their institutions, and now violence that has reached their most sacred spaces. The research ISPU has conducted documents a consistent pattern–one that intensified in recent months. The dehumanizing rhetoric and streams of disinformation in the halls of Congress and across social media directly contribute to the violence we are seeing today. Within hours of the shooting, the same dehumanizing hate speech continued in full force, blaming victims and justifying violence.

In light of this, here are a few points from ISPU's 2025 American Muslim Poll that contextualize this moment:

• Muslims report facing the highest level of religious discrimination of any faith group in the United States, and that level has remained steady since we began measuring it in 2016. (source)

• Islamophobia has risen sharply since we last measured in 2022, including among almost all faith groups, white and Hispanic Americans, and even young people in the general public. (source)

• A majority of mosque leaders are concerned about safety and security when their community gathers, with more than a quarter saying they are very concerned. (source)

• American Muslims are the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the country—28% identify as Black or African American—making this community especially vulnerable to the layered forms of hate and discrimination shaping our current political moment. (source)

The attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego is an unfortunate reminder of how important it is for facts to be centered in reporting and documenting tragedies like this one. When ISPU was founded, this kind of research and data was almost nonexistent. More than two decades later, ISPU is committed to ensuring that Muslim voices, experiences, and stories are seen and heard, and that the facts inform the policies that impact our communities.

In moments like these, we choose to be inspired by the heroes who protected their communities, the neighbors who stood shoulder to shoulder with San Diego’s Muslim community, and the voices of reason who rightfully call out the bigotry that inspired these acts.

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