San Diego

Three men died in the Islamic Center of San Diego on the 18th of May 2026. Their names were Nader Awad, Mansour Kaziha, and Amin Abdullah¹. All three were victims of Islamophobia.

And the ugliness of this form of hate is so entrenched that Laura Loomer, an individual given a large platform and political influence by Western society felt no need to give us even a moment to grieve, posting right after about "how evil this mosque has always been", saying it should be raided by ICE and the FBI², and calling for every Muslim in America to be deported,³ among other comments.

It is heart rending to know that as my kids become more and more accustomed to growing up in a North American society that hates them, we have to fight to even name the hate. Because not only do we get demonized and slandered, not only are we subjected to the worst kinds of physical violence, we also are constantly roped into debates over the very validity of the term 'Islamophobia'.

So let's talk about it.

The first thing is there is no perfect term for anything. Islamophobia is the most common way to describe the hatred, discrimination, and violence Muslims face and so it should be used. Because every bit of energy and time spent debating the term's accuracy or precision or whatever else is a bit of time not spent on rooting out the hatred and making it unacceptable in society. It's vulgar to pick at the imperfect term Anti-Semitism because "Arabs are Semites too", and the same applies here.
But the second thing is that Islamophobia is actually an incredibly accurate way to describe the phenomenon. Because it is the very tenants of Islam that are vilified and then through that, Muslims are turned into villains needing to be attacked. Every time a Quran is burned, it's an attack on Islam and, therefore, anyone who considers it to be their holy text, anytime half baked nonsense about Islam being somehow "incompatible" with Western values is forwarded or shared it turns followers of Islam into dangerous foreign invaders. Whenever "Sharia law" is brought up as some sort of scary threat, based on nothing of substance, it validates seeing Muslims as enemies within needing to be dealt with.

Hate Crimes are always preceded by Hate Speech and Islamophobes like Laura Loomer, Randy Fine, and Sam Harris are directly responsible for, not only the deaths of Nader Awad, Mansour Kaziha and Amin Abdullah, but for the millions of lives shattered in Iran, Lebanon, The West Bank, and Gaza, in hostilities justified on nothing more than the suspicion and hatred of Muslims.

The best we can do in these times is to loudly condemn the Islamophobia in our societies and help its victims. The Islamic Center of San Diego has a Launch Good fundraiser that is easily found⁴ but I am raising money to help a family of 10 in Gaza.⁵ Please contact me for details on that and please do what you can. Every little bit helps and inaction is not a valid option any longer.

All opinions my own, in the end only God knows best.