<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The killings Monday at San Diego’s largest mosque are being investigated as a hate crime, touching off concerns about rising Islamophobia in the United States.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“Islamophobia endangers Muslim communities across this country,” Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, said in response to the shooting, which left three people dead, in addition to the two shooters. “We must confront it directly and stand together against the politics of fear and division.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Islamophobia has been an intractable problem in the United States for decades. Hate crimes against Muslims surged following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to F.B.I. data.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">More recently, the war in Gaza, which set off protests across American college campuses, has contributed to a steady increase in anti-Muslim sentiment and inspired violence against a range of religious institutions, including synagogues and churches. Antisemitic incidents also skyrocketed following the start of the conflict in 2023, according to the Anti-Defamation League.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 8,683 civil rights complaints in 2025, the most the group has recorded since 1996, according to its most recent report.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“Government actions and official rhetoric treated Muslims — and people who speak up for Palestinian human rights — as suspicious and outside the circle of protected religious and civic life,” the council wrote in the 2025 report.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">In recent months, attackers have targeted individuals and community centers.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, a landlord killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American tenant and stabbed his mother, who survived.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">During the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, a lone assailant assaulted Representative Ilhan Omar at a news conference. The congresswoman, who is a prominent Somali American Muslim and outspoken critic of the president, was unharmed.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Before the enforcement operation, President Trump had likened the Somali community in Minneapolis to “garbage.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-3"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-2"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">In February, a shooting occurred at the Islamic Center in Matamoras, Pa., during the holy month of Ramadan. No one was inside the center at the time of the shooting, but the bullets destroyed windows and furniture.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">On Jan. 30, a woman <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/nyregion/hate-crimes-brooklyn-hijab.html" title="">was charged with attacking three people, including punching a 12-year-old wearing a hijab in the face</a>, in the heavily Muslim neighborhood of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. </p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">On Monday, at a news conference only hours after the shooting in San Diego, Taha Hassane, an imam at the Islamic Center, spoke of his shock and grief.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship,” he said. “People come to the Islamic center to pray, to celebrate, to learn, not only Muslims, but we have people from all walks of life.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div>