GAR STATEMENT ON THE MAY 18 SHOOTING AT THE ISLAMIC CENTER OF SAN DIEGO

We are devastated. We are heartbroken. We are enraged. On May 18, the Islamophobic and white supremacist attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego took the lives of Amin Abdullah, Nader Awad, and Mansour Kaziha. 

This deadly shooting did not happen in isolation. Our communities are forced to live with unending grief. We mourn loved ones taken from us in mosques, in schools, in our neighborhood streets, and even inside our own homes. We carry these losses with us every single day. For decades, politicians, media institutions, and people in power have dehumanized Arab and Muslim people to manufacture consent. Consent for violence. Consent for dropping bombs on schools. Consent for the expansion of militarization. 

We all deserve to live without fear. We all deserve to pray without wondering if we are safe. We all deserve to raise our children without having to teach them how to survive hatred before they are even old enough to understand it. We all deserve this, so it will take all of us to organize for a world where everyone has dignity, safety, and justice.

At GAR, we refuse to treat this violence as inevitable. We refuse to normalize the hatred that endangers our families, friends, and communities. Our grief moves us into action to confront Islamophobia wherever it appears, to challenge the systems that sustain violence, and to protect one another with urgency and care. 

We owe that to the people we have lost, to all who are still living in fear, and to the generations that deserve a future free from this violence. 

Support the families of Amin Abdullah, Nader Awad, and Mansour Kaziha: bit.ly/supporticsd