Anti-Muslim Hate Is At Critical Levels And Corporate Media Is Ignoring It
Social and governmental attacks on American Muslims are increasing rapidly—here's what you need to know
Right wing Christian nationalists are targeting American Muslim students in Florida, more such nationalists are targeting American Muslims in Michigan, Texas Governor Abbott is banning American Muslim civic organizations like CAIR, and members of Congress are openly demonizing Islam and American Muslims.
And corporate media is near wholly ignoring all of these dangerous escalations to violence. My genuine fear is this will enable another mass attack on American Muslims—and we cannot allow that to happen. Here are the updates to keep you informed.
Let’s Address This.
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On 9/11 I was a 19-year-old brown bearded Muslim immigrant. I vividly recall the escalation in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Black, anti-Sikh, and anti-Hindu sentiment in the months and years that followed.
What we’re experiencing now is demonstrably worse. And unless we pay attention and push back against this campaign of hate, it will soon escalate into targeted violence.
Societal Escalation Against American Muslims
Donald Trump’s entry into politics a decade ago reignited the anti-Muslim hate that consumed the United States post 9/11. Since Zohran Mamdani’s election, that raging fire of hate has taken on new forms. As I’ve written before, anti-Muslim hate remains a perfectly acceptable form of bigotry in America. Now, it is going more mainstream with posts like below that are getting millions of views.
But it isn’t just about online hate. This week alone we’ve seen an escalate of hate that we cannot afford to ignore. At the University of South Florida, right wing Christian nationalists targeted American Muslim students for the crime of “praying.” The irony of course that these same Christian nationalist demand more prayer in school—but I guess this is just the wrong kind of prayer.
Not to be outdone, in Dearborn, Michigan—which is one of the highest concentration of Arab American Muslims in the country—Christian nationalists held a hate parade which culminated in an attempt to burn the Holy Qur’an, which is the holy scripture for Muslims.
Again, the irony here is that the actual Islamic Shariah compliant way to dispose of a Qur’an is to burn it. However, the intention here was simply to spread more hate and discord.
I commend my fellow American Muslims in both Florida and Texas for maintaining their calm and composure. No doubt if they had retaliated in hate and violence, they would have been blamed and the national narrative would have turned against them. Likewise, notice the silence from politicians on the left and the right? No condemnations. No calls for peace. No rejection of Islamophobia.
Indeed, this social escalation in hatred and violence against American Muslims is part of the equation. This hate is finding a home in governmental escalation against American Muslims.
Governmental Escalation Against American Muslims
In Texas, Governor Gregg Abbot has designated an American Muslim organization—the Council on American-Islamic Relations—as a “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization.”
He followed up this baseless and absurd designation with a claim that Texans who are Muslim are operating “Sharia courts” in Texas.
None of this demonization is grounded in facts—only fear. And that’s the point. When you can successfully dehumanize a group, inciting fear against them is easy, and violence naturally follows.
Likewise, members of Congress, like right wing MAGA sycophant Randy Fine of Florida, are openly condemning Islam, and by default, Americans who are Muslim. Is this the lowering of temperature that Republicans claim to want?
Not to be outdone, Ted Cruz happily piled on the demonization of American Muslims, specifically targeting Zohran Mamdani.
And remember, this is a bipartisan cancer. Democratic Senator Kirstin Gillibrand accused Zohran of wanting to “wage global Jihad” (a lie) and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer refused to say he would even vote for Zohran.
The fusion of social and governmental attacks on American Muslims will result in inevitable violence against Americans who are Muslim. This is not a prediction, but a proven reality based on how hate spreads and ignites violence. And the only way to stop this eventual violence is to recognize and reject this hate.
Sadly, based on what I receive daily in messages and emails, we are headed in the wrong direction.
Resulting Personal Attacks
Below is a snapshot of the hateful messages I’m receiving as a result of the anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate dominating the public, and ignored by corporate media. Content warning—harsh and vile language ahead. I share this in full not for sympathy or condolences, but for the very practical reason that I want my readers to understand this escalation in real time. This is not the time to mince words in sounding the alarm. This is the time to understand the hate that exists, and stand united against that hate. For example, consider this recent message from Chris Hofer.
Every word of his hateful message is dehumanizing and indistinguishable from Nazi rhetoric. Likewise, in an email sent to my personal address, similar hate:
Luke Jordan piled on with this vile direct message on one of my social media platforms:
And Chad Terpstra decided to share this message on my Facebook page.
I want you to notice two things about these abusive messages. One, the similarity in hateful language. It indicates the Overton window has unfortunately shifted, and this hate is becoming normalized and mainstream. And two, notice how many of these racists are sharing their hate openly, under their real names. It would be easy to discount every hateful message as a bot—but sadly that’s not the case. These are our neighbors, radicalized by Nationalist Christians and bigoted elected officials, and acting upon that hate.
Conclusion
Americans have seen this pattern before. When a minority community is dehumanized socially, ignored institutionally, and targeted politically, violence becomes not just predictable—but inevitable. These attacks on American Muslims are not happening in isolation. They are the result of years of normalized bigotry, political opportunism, and a media ecosystem that has decided our safety is not newsworthy.
And as someone who lived through the post-9/11 wave of anti-Muslim hate, I can say with clarity that what we are witnessing today is worse. It is broader, better funded, more coordinated, and more accepted across the political spectrum. When elected officials demonize Islam, when governors ban Muslim civic organizations, when members of Congress openly vilify Muslim Americans, and when Nationalist Christian mobs feel empowered to intimidate students and burn Qur’ans—they are not just targeting Muslims. They are testing the boundaries of hate in this country.
And right now, they are learning that those boundaries barely exist.
That is why it is essential—for Muslims, for non-Muslims, for anyone who cares about pluralism, dignity, and the basic promise of equal humanity—that we refuse to look away. We cannot rely on corporate media; their silence is part of the problem. We cannot rely on politicians; too many are enabling or legitimizing this hate. We have only one option left: each other.
We must build the counter-narrative ourselves. We must document what is happening, expose the lies, challenge the bigotry, and organize our communities so that no one stands alone. That is the work I am committed to doing every single day. But I cannot do it without you.
If you value this reporting—if you want to ensure someone is tracking these threats, connecting the dots, and pushing back on the hate that others ignore—then I need you in this fight with me. Because the truth is simple: the more they escalate their hate, the more we must expand our solidarity.
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