It takes a whole community to combat hate

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Jury selection recently began in the long-awaited trial of the shooter accused of killing 11 people inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018. As the Jewish community revisits the wounds of the deadliest attack of antisemitism in this country, Minnesota's Muslim community is grappling with a series of horrific attacks on mosques and Islamic centers in the metropolitan area.

They should not be alone in responding to this epidemic of anti-Muslim hate — and they are not.

Just last week, the Masjid (Mosque) As Sunnah in St. Paul was vandalized by a masked individual. Last month, the Masjid Omar Islamic Center and Masjid Al Rahma mosques were targeted by arsonists and the Umatul Islam Mosque was vandalized just days apart from one another. These attacks were the latest in a dangerous trend of hate crimes committed against Minnesota's Muslim community in recent years, including an attack on the Tawfiq Islamic Center in 2022, the vandalization of the Islamic Center of St. Cloud in 2022, and the high-profile bombing of the Dar Al-Farooq Center in 2017.

Hate targeting minority communities is not a new phenomenon. But these incidents are occurring at a time when the FBI recently reported a stark increase in hate crimes, from 194 in 2020 to 241 in 2021, marking a two-decade high in reported hate crimes in Minnesota. The intensity and frequency of the attacks reveal a deeply troubling and dangerous undercurrent of anti-Muslim hate in our region.

Hate crimes not only instill fear in the immediate target, but also can deeply unsettle the entire community. By their very nature, hate crimes intend to send a message of intimidation and isolation to those who identify in similar ways as those affected.

Unfortunately, the Jewish community is no stranger to the chain reaction that a hate crime can cause and the pain we are all forced to reckon with following violent acts of antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League has been tracking antisemitic incident data since 1979. Last year, 2022, set a new record, with a total of 3,697 incidents reported across the United States, an increase of 36% compared to 2021 and an all-time high. In Minnesota, we tracked a 130% increase over the past two years — from 23 incidents in 2020 and 53 in 2022.

We share this data not to draw attention away from this most recent wave of anti-Muslim hate. This is not a competition. But antisemitism has often been the canary in the coal mine for attacks against other historically marginalized communities, and we are now seeing the next wave in a dangerous trend of hate crimes targeting the Muslim community. Houses of worship are being forced to transform from open places where religious freedom is celebrated into hardened facilities where worshipers walk past armed security guards just to get to daily prayers. It shouldn't be this way.

Tackling hate requires a whole community response. We are offering the Muslim community our support and action whenever possible. This begins with loudly condemning anti-Muslim attacks whenever and wherever they happen, and standing in solidarity together against acts of hate targeting any community. But it doesn't and shouldn't end there.

Minneapolis' recent ordinance allowing the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast five times a day year-round is an example of how cities can help create environments where religious diversity is celebrated.

We also need to ensure that religious institutions and faith communities have access to the resources necessary to keep their communities safe. A large coalition of religious and community organizations, including ADL, has actively lobbied for increased nonprofit security funding at the federal and state level, including through legislation in Minnesota this year. These grants provide nonprofit organizations and houses of worship with much-needed assistance to bolster security.

Despite legislative efforts, Minnesota does not currently have a state-level program beyond what is already guaranteed through the federal government. We are hopeful that the Minnesota Legislature will create this critically important state supplement, so that our religious institutions and community centers can be hardened against the next attack.

It's on all of us to support the Muslim American community in this moment of pain. Our places of worship must be protected against hate crimes while providing a safe space where community members feel comfortable practicing their religion freely. We cannot stand for anything else.

David Goldenberg is the Evelyn R. Greene Midwest Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League. George Selim is the senior director for national affairs of the Anti-Defamation League.