The deepest fears of San Diego’s religious communities were realized in Islamic Center shooting - BERITAJA

SAN DIEGO — As an simple schoolhouse student astatine the Islamic Center of San Diego successful the early aughts, Sarah Youssef said she doesn’t retrieve location being guards connected patrol aliases gates keeping retired danger.

But Youssef, now a assemblage freshman who leads a section weapon unit prevention group, said she remembers erstwhile the halfway hired Amin Abdullah to defender the facility. Many were comforted by his beingness but besides concerned about what it signified.

Years later, organization members’ — and Abdullah’s — deepest fears came to pass.

Two shooters attempted to large wind the Islamic Center earlier this week. Along pinch Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, who managed the center’s store, and organization personnel Nadir Awad thwarted their onslaught but sacrificed themselves. Their speedy actions connected Monday were praised arsenic sheer heroism that whitethorn person saved dozens of lives, pinch about 140 children and teachers wrong the center’s walls.

Two women outcry arsenic they time off a reunification halfway pursuing the shooting astatine the Islamic Center of San Diego connected Monday.Zoë Meyers / AFP via Getty Images

But their deaths besides underscored the threats facing mosques and different houses of believe arsenic dislike rhetoric intensifies crossed the world and is keenly felt this week successful San Diego.

Youssef said it was unimaginable that 1 of the shooters lived wrong blocks of the halfway “and had specified a brainwashed thought of what this belief was.”

Yet San Diego is nary alien to dislike crimes. While the city reported it saw a 64% alteration successful race-based crimes and a 46% driblet successful crimes based connected intersexual predisposition personality from 2024 to 2025, belief dislike crimes accrued 150% during that aforesaid clip period.

In 2019, a gunman killed 1 person and wounded 3 others astatine the Chabad of Poway synagogue, about 20 miles from the Islamic Center. The shooter later said he was inspired by the gunman who attacked 2 mosques successful Christchurch, New Zealand, sidesplitting 51 people.

In caller years, neo-Nazi flyers were dispersed passim the city, a swastika defaced a assemblage field and a Jewish fraternity astatine San Diego State University was vandalized.

A candlelight vigil for the unfortunate of a shooting astatine Chabad of Poway successful 2019.Sandy Huffaker / AFP via Getty Images file

Investigators judge the gunmen who attacked the mosque were radicalized online and shared the desire to create a achromatic ethnostate. They espoused neo-Nazi propaganda successful their writings and expressed hatred for Muslims, Jews, the LGBTQ organization and others, according to rule enforcement.

The shooters’ acheronian worldview, section residents and religion leaders said, was calved from normalizing dislike rhetoric online and successful politics. “You’re going to internalize” the dependable watercourse of specified anti-Muslim messaging shared online, Youssef said. “No 1 is calved hateful.”

Hussam Ayloush, the CEO and executive head of the Center for American-Islamic Relations’ California chapter, warned that “none of america is immune. We are not safe.” He said during a self-defense webinar for mosques Wednesday successful consequence to the attack, adding: “As we watch, Islamophobia grows, anti-Muslim rhetoric grows.”

Abdullah, the Islamic Center’s guard, exchanged gunfire pinch the shooters and radioed successful a lockdown pinch his last breaths, constabulary said. Kaziha, a organization leader who managed the mosque shop for about 40 years, turned group distant from the bullets. And Nadir Awad, whose woman is simply a coach astatine the school, ran toward the gunfire erstwhile he heard shooting crossed the thoroughfare from his home, constabulary said.

“Don’t think, ‘I’m isolated, I’m successful a wide state, I’m successful a wide city, I’m successful a bluish state,’ and truthful on. Hate could scope anywhere,” Ayloush said.

In 2023, the Islamic Center of San Diego, which housed the simple schoolhouse and a mosque, was flooded pinch dislike flyers, prompting the imam to prosecute further equipped information for the campus. Abdullah’s girl said he was sometimes worried about taking luncheon distant from his station because “something bad” could happen.

“He would beryllium truthful vigilant successful protecting the masjid, protecting the children,” Hawaa Abdullah said of her father, utilizing the Arab connection for mosque. “He wanted to prevention his nutrient till aft he near the occupation because he was acrophobic that if he went connected his break, thing bad will happen.”

Islamophobia is connected the emergence crossed the country. CAIR received 8,683 complaints nationwide successful 2025, the highest number recorded since 1996, the statement said.

Meanwhile, successful San Diego County, antisemitic incidents person risen since Israel began its battle connected Gaza successful consequence to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks. The Anti-Defamation League recorded a 150% summation locally from 2024 to 2025, pinch 139 incidents including harassment, vandalism and assault.

Nationally, the ADL counted 6,274 antisemitic incidents successful 2025, marking a important alteration from 2024, erstwhile 9,354 incidents were recorded.

Despite the nationalist downward trend, Jewish leaders opportunity information measures for illustration equipped guards, metallic detectors and surveillance about schools and synagogues stay astatine an all-time high. According to Heidi Gantwerk, president and CEO of Jewish Federation of San Diego, Jewish institutions crossed the U.S. spent immoderate $785 cardinal connected information past year.

“We salary a taxation to beryllium Jewish successful the state correct now,” Gantwerk said. “More than 60% of dislike crimes, belief dislike crimes, are against Jews, and we’re 2% of the population.”

Earlier this twelvemonth the metropolis assembly voted 8 to 1 to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, described arsenic a “certain cognition of Jews, which whitethorn beryllium expressed arsenic hatred toward Jews.” Some advocates praised the ballot arsenic sending a “clear, unequivocal connection that it understands the threat antisemitism poses not conscionable to Jews, but to each San Diegans,” according to the American Jewish Committee.

“The architecture of antisemitism is that it is simply a mutually reinforcing strategy of bigotry and oppression, pinch different forms of hatred, beryllium it anti-Blackness, misogyny, Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, anti-LGBTQ phobia,” said Vlad Khaykin, caput of defense astatine the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish quality authorities organization. “These things thin to emergence together.” The Islamic Center’s attackers are believed to person held a likewise sprawling hate-based ideology.

Muslim residents, however, opportunity San Diego has lagged successful fighting Islamophobia. Tazheen Nizam, the executive head of CAIR San Diego, said gathering requests pinch Mayor Todd Gloria and rule enforcement person many times been ignored.

“They person turned their backs connected us,” Nizam said.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Gloria said meetings person taken spot betwixt the mayor’s agency and Muslim organization leaders.

Community members bring flowers to salary their respects to the victims a time aft a shooting astatine the Islamic Center of San Diego connected Tuesday.Zoë Meyers / AFP via Getty Images

“Mayor Gloria has been clear that violence, hate, antisemitism, and Islamophobia person nary spot successful San Diego,” the connection said. “The City will proceed moving pinch rule enforcement, religion leaders, and organization organizations to support the information of communities of religion crossed San Diego.”

The sheriff’s section said it ne'er received a petition to meet pinch CAIR San Diego and will proceed to connection other patrols to each places of believe wrong its jurisdiction.

But Youssef and different members of the Islamic Center opportunity they are disappointment and angry the onslaught “was allowed to happen” aft what they picture arsenic years of indifference to anti-Muslim hate.

“As a community, we’ve sensed the summation successful Islamophobia complete the years,” she said. “When I was little, we didn’t person the magnitude of information we do now. We didn’t person those alloy gates aliases an equipped information guard.”

Alicia Victoria Lozano reported from Los Angeles. Dennis Romero reported from San Diego.