The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) received 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim incidents nationwide last year.
Nearly half were received in the final three months alone, following the October Hamas attack.
CAIR said that number is underreported.
And still, it’s a bigger spike in complaints than after former president Donald Trump’s travel bans.
The incidents range from hate crimes to discrimination in education, employment and immigration.
San Diego State University student Mohamed Erekat said San Diego has not felt safe.
“We have seen our mosques being targeted,” he said. “We cannot even pray without armed security. Many do not even feel safe going to places of worship anymore. They do not feel safe gathering with their communities.”
San Diego City College professor Mona Alsoraimi-Espiritu said college staff wrote a resolution asking the district to affirm their free speech right to voice support for Palestinian people.
“Our faculty who were voting on the resolution were flooded with anti-Palestinian Islamophobic emails, urging people to not vote in support of the resolution,” she said.
Local Imam Taha Hassane said these numbers reflect reality in San Diego County, where 45 of the reports were filed since October.
In the days following the Hamas attack, Hassane’s mosque was vandalized with dozens of flyers. Blue rags — a color of Israel’s flag — were tied to the fence, CAIR reported.
“I have seen Muslim businesses here in San Diego being attacked online,” he said. “I have seen also students being bullied at school just because of their names and because of they are Muslims or Arabs or Palestinians.”
Student activist Julie Shannon said her sister, a Muslim Syrian-American high schooler in San Diego, shares that experience.
“Her experience as a Muslim, post-October 7, has left her traumatized and confused about her own identity,” she said. “We have come so far since post-9/11 Islamophobia that was experienced by my generation. And now, post-October-7 Islamophobia just dragged our society and communities back 23 years of progress.”
The Anti-Defamation League also reported an unprecedented national rise in antisemitic incidents — more than 2,000 since October. Incidents in the city of San Diego rose last year, too.
The city of Lemon Grove passed a ceasefire resolution. San Diego city and county officials have yet to follow suit.
