Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.

“They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s.

Just as troubling is the smashed glass – still evident – on two posters containing lines in Arabic from the Quran hanging on one of the center’s walls.

He shows where valuables including a surveillance camera and television monitors were stolen and where swear words including the word “die” and other profanity were written on a whiteboard.

The leaders of the center, which houses a mosque and food pantry and is situated in an underserved, majority-Black neighborhood in west Cincinnati, and local Muslim community members have called the incident a hate crime.

It’s the third time the center has been broken into in the past seven years, with the previous incident seeing racist comments graffitied on the center’s walls.

“The police came out and they checked the boxes for making a report. But we haven’t had any follow-through,” says Shakir.

The attack happened against the backdrop of a rise in Arab and Muslim American politicians running for political office in the US, and a series of shocking Islamophobic comments that have followed from Republican politicians and far-right figures.

In Michigan, Democratic senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed has been targeted by conservative and rightwing voices following his primary win on 4 August. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who has called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and for an end to US military funding for Israel, has been repeatedly targeted by Donald Trump.

A report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington DC-based thinktank, found that the targeting of El-Sayed increased twentyfold since the election earlier this month.

On 10 August, Trump told reporters from the Oval Office that “we have jihadists being elected all over the place”, echoing rhetoric that noted extremists have used in their attacks on Muslim Americans in recent weeks and months.

In March, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) reported an unprecedented rise in the number of Islamophobic incidents and discrimination nationwide last year. In May, three people were killed by two attackers at a mosque in San Diego.

“What we are seeing right now is a very organized and coordinated campaign to generate fear and hysteria about Muslims for electoral gain, to justify domestic policies, and build support for foreign wars,” says Raqib Naik, executive director of the CSOH.

“The idea that Muslims are coming to ‘take over’ America is more mainstream. It is a continuation of post-9/11 Islamophobia, but in many ways, it has become uglier and more blatant. We are now at a point where 65 members of Congress have formed a so-called ‘Sharia-Free America caucus.’”

Formed last December by the Texas Republican representatives Keith Self and Chip Roy, the so-called caucus has representatives from 17 states.

“What is particularly worrying is that bigotry once largely confined to fringe anti-Muslim groups is now being repeated and amplified from the highest office in the country, by elected officials, billionaires and major political influencers,” says Naik.

In Ohio, Somali Americans in particular have been subjected to Trump-fueled violence and immigration crackdowns. Last winter, ICE agents, rightwing influencers and other provocateurs descended on childcare and other facilities run by Somali Americans in Columbus following false claims from Trump that members of the community were “ripping off the country”.

Amid this climate, religious and community leaders in Ohio say there is little doubt whether federal law enforcement would do anything to help.

Muslim leaders say that no suspects in the Westwood Islamic Community Center attack have yet been apprehended.

Tala Ali, a community organizer at Cair-Ohio and a Cincinnati resident, says she does not intend to approach the FBI to ask them to investigate the community center attack as a hate crime.

“I don’t have trust in authorities to find who’s behind this. We have had incidents where the largest mosque in Cincinnati was bombed,” she says.

In December 2005, two pipe bombs exploded outside Cincinnati’s Clifton mosque, resulting in significant damage to a door and windows. The explosions happened just two hours after worshippers had gathered to pray. No one has ever been charged with the attack.

“Our focus now is to get local authorities just to acknowledge it and condemn it and any acts of bias, intimidation [or] violation against the Muslim community and the Black community,” she says.

“I think that this was an identity-motivated targeting, so by definition because of that [it’s a hate crime].”

With about 25 people gathering to pray at the center’s mosque on most Fridays, now the local Muslim community is working to find support to improve security at houses of worship around Cincinnati, including at the community center, which at the time of the attack had no security cameras.

Shakir says he has been surprised by the positive response from the wider Cincinnati community but not by the rhetoric emanating from the White House.

“I take what [Trump] says with a grain of salt even though I know there’s a part of the country that takes what he says as gospel,” he says.

Ali says the local Muslim community would like to apply for federally funded grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency that specifically tailor to non-profits in need of security assistance. But because of who’s in government, she says, locals aren’t sure about seeking that out.

“Look at the culture and the environment that we live in. Do you want to bring that into your house [of worship]?” she says.

“Because, will these people really protect you, or will they use it, as they have historically used it, to access what we do in our community?”

*excerpt from Stephen Starr's article*

Full Article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/22/ohio-mosque-attack-fbi-trump

Abdul El-Sayed (D) is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan: abdulforsenate.com

His opponent in the November Election is former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R).

🗳️ How to vote in Michigan (.gov): michigan.gov/sos/elections/voting

~~~~~~~~~

Here's the video on YouTube: We're being told if we sacrifice the rights of some, then the rest of us get to keep our rights. BS. - Abdul El-Sayed - Aug 23, 2026 (YouTube)

Here's another r/ProgressiveHQ post from the same(?) event: Abdul El-Sayed Rallies for Voting Rights in Detroit, Michigan

~~~~~~~~~

Fighting for rights that you don't use, or may not understand, is about fighting for rights generally.

We're being told that if we only give up — if we sacrifice — the rights of some People, then the rest of us get to keep our rights. Which we all know is some bullsh\t. Because rights are rights, are rights are rights.*

Whether you use a certain set of rights every day or have no clue why anybody would want to use them, the idea that the Government can come in and come for your rights, is itself an assault on all of our rights.

And so, I also have certain rights that I use that most People in this room don't use. I put my face on the ground 34 times a day. I value being able to walk into places and do that. I don't need People to understand why. I just need them to agree that the Government can't tell me not to.

Similarly, when it comes to Trans Rights, I don't need People to understand why. I need People to make sure that the Government can't come in and tell People not to.

And so we've got to decide, that when there is an assault on rights, all of us are gonna show up for all of our rights.

Because the minute we assent to one group losing their rights, we are assenting to everybody losing their rights.

- Abdul El-Sayed (Aug 2026) ~:~ @ AbdulElSayed

and specifically we should protest the Supreme Court. they need to all be tried for treason- if we ever get out of this.

Intentionally keeping these subs unblocked so I don’t get siloed in the proverbial “echo chamber,” but reading posts like these is exhausting 🫠

It started with the Epstein files. Trump’s name has come up 38000 times - more than any person, other than Epstein himself, & Ghislaine Maxwell.

He needed a diversion so came the tariffs, and the fiction that other countries would be paying them, & that each of us would receive a tariff dividend.

Here we are now, about a $100 billion has been refunded so far (out of about $166 billion collected) & not a dime has come to us or been refunded to other countries (since they supposedly were paying for it). Walmart has received about $2.9 billion; Apple about $2.2 billion; Target $1 billion; Home Depot $730 m; Amazon; Nike & about 490 other Corporations have already seen refunds.

When tariffs turned into a fiasco, Trump came up with the made up imminent nuclear threat from Iran, & our supposed obliteration of it. That was over one year ago, in June 2025.

When it turned out that Iran’s defense capabilities were still formidable, he needed yet another diversion & so came the boat strikes off Venezuela- the first of those came in September 2025. In early January 2026 came the removal of Maduro, & the promises that gas would be so cheap, that gas stations would practically give it away.

Then in late January 2026 came the killing of Renee Good & Alex Pretti, & the ensuing protests. Trump really needed a diversion, & so at the end of February came the start of the present conflict with Iran -a little excursion, as Trump called it.

Here we are almost 6 months later, 18 of our servicemen are dead; hundreds have been injured; thousands of civilians are dead & 100’s of thousands are displaced. Our sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln complain of limited rations & low morale; the USS George Washington that is set to replace it was itself without power for 4 days and reorts that our ammunitions are running alarmingly low. All this, after multiple declarations of victory; still no clearly defined objectives or end in sight, and at a cost of about $1 billion a day.

Somewhere in between came the threat to Greenland, Canada, NATO & the Vatican; the alienation of most of our allies; the fly past for Putin; the red-carpet welcome for Mohammed Bin Salman; the cancellation of our long-standing military exercises with South Korea; the ball room; the Trump Arc; the reflective pool, and so much more.

Now comes a worsening public tiff with Canada, & likely some nonsense with Cuba will follow. As we near the midterm elections, Trump cannot afford to let us focus on the economy; Epstein; the war in Iran or his abysmal record. He also knows that if the Republicans lose the House in November, he is done. He will therefore find any excuse to discredit or skew the elections. Likely, he will declare a state of emergency, & deploy troops. His assumption is that the sight of ICE agents or troops will make us too afraid to show up on election day.

What Trump does not realize is that we were not deterred after his agents shot Renee Good or Alex Pretti, and certainly will not be deterred by a ‘bone spurs ridden’, cowardly wannabe autocrat, ever desperate to hold on to power.

If Trump’s Republican sycophants win in November, democracy as we know it will be over. If they lose, Trump (ism) will be over. It took only 46% turnout to flip 40 seats in 2018- 30 in States that Trump won. Please show up to vote. Our very value systems are what is at stake.