After a mosque shooting, American Muslims deserve comfort, not hate |
After a mosque shooting, American Muslims deserve comfort, not hate
On the morning of May 18, a gunman opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing a security guard and two worshippers at morning prayer. By Monday afternoon, San Diego’s police chief had told reporters there was “definitely hate rhetoric involved.” Investigators reportedly found anti-Islamic writing in the suspect’s car.
Before the day was out, Laura Loomer — a Trump ally with documented White House access — had a different message for federal law enforcement. In a social media post, she called the mosque “evil” and demanded the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid it — not to investigate a hate crime but to raid the victims.
I have spent more than a decade at the intersection of national security and American Muslim civic life — first as a senior advisor at the Department of Homeland Security and now at the Muslim Public Affairs Council. I know what it looks like when political pressure is applied to federal institutions. I have watched it happen to the ones I helped build. What I am watching now is more direct than anything I saw then.
Loomer is not a fringe voice in this administration. She is a named ally of the president, one whose influence on personnel decisions at federal agencies has been reported and documented. When she tells the FBI — publicly, the same day as a mass shooting — that the appropriate response is to raid the mosque rather than investigate the attack on it, that is not a random post. It is pressure.........