Washington, DC – As the USA and Israel proceed to wage warfare with Iran, civil rights consultants have famous a troubling pattern: an ongoing rise in Islamophobia, even within the highest echelons of the US authorities.
Consultant Andy Ogles, for instance, has said, “Muslims don’t belong in American society”, including that “pluralism is a lie”.
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His Republican colleague, Consultant Randy Fine, has additionally amplified anti-Muslim rhetoric on-line.
“In the event that they drive us to decide on, the selection between canine and Muslims isn’t a troublesome one,” he mentioned one current submit. In one other, Effective wrote: “Deport them ALL.”
In January, Consultant Keith Self, additionally a Republican, shared on social media: “Islam is on the march and seeks world domination.”
These sorts of statements, coupled with punitive actions beneath United States President Donald Trump, have created the surroundings for a rise in Islamophobia and discrimination within the US, in keeping with advocates.
“That is an excessive language that’s typically used to advance excessive insurance policies,” mentioned Corey Sawyer, the analysis and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group.
CAIR launched its annual report on Tuesday, which outlines what it sees as an more and more hostile surroundings, one which started even earlier than the outbreak of the warfare with Iran.
Whereas the authorized rights of Muslims within the nation haven’t modified “on paper”, CAIR argues that these rights have been narrowed amid anti-Muslim rhetoric and insurance policies.
That places all US residents in danger, no matter faith, the organisation mentioned.
“In 2025, what we noticed in the USA was a bunch of highly effective public officers assert that freedom comes with situations,” Sawyer mentioned.
“It’s a must to communicate their permitted traces. It’s a must to worship in methods during which they approve. It’s best to hint your ancestry to locations that they approve of. And you need to assume the ideas that they approve.”
Sawyer defined that the push to silence Muslim voices within the US was a symptom of a broader rollback of free-speech rights beneath the First Modification of the Structure.
“Defending your proper to be totally different and your proper to dissent isn’t a favour to anybody group,” Sawyer added. “That’s the working system of a free nation.”
‘Broad assault on Muslim life’
In Tuesday’s report, CAIR indicated its workplaces throughout the nation obtained 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide in 2025, a slight enhance from the earlier yr.
It was the very best quantity of complaints for CAIR because it started publishing its civil rights report in 1996.
Sawyer pointed to a number of elements that contributed to the uptick. The Trump administration, for instance, has rolled again its civil rights operations on the Division of Homeland Safety and Division of Schooling.
The White Home has additionally led efforts to punish colleges and college students for his or her participation in pro-Palestinian protests and actions.
Then, there have been statements from the president himself, attacking Muslim-majority teams residing within the US, together with Somalis and Afghans.
Taken collectively, these actions amounted to a “broad assault on Muslim life” in 2025, Sawyer mentioned.
In the meantime, CAIR’s report mentioned that “anti-Muslim narratives extra clearly resurfaced in 2025, notably the notion that the spiritual rules adopted by Muslims are inherently threatening and anti-American”.
Not less than 5 items of laws launched on the federal stage sought to “successfully ban the observe of the world’s second-largest faith in the USA or entry of its adherents into the nation”, the report mentioned.
A number of of these payments sought to ban so-called “sharia” practices, adopting “terminology developed by anti-Muslim extremists within the mid-2000s”, in keeping with CAIR’s report.
CAIR additionally pointed to the creation of a so-called “Sharia-Free America Caucus” launched by Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self final yr, which at the moment claims 45 lawmakers as members.
The report mentioned the caucus seeks to “advance the concept that Muslim spiritual id disqualifies folks from participation in American civic life”.
CAIR itself was targeted in 2025, with the governors of each Texas and Florida labelling the group a “overseas terrorist group”.
The label carries no authorized weight on the state stage, and CAIR< has continued to function within the states.
However it has filed lawsuits accusing the governors, accusing them of defamation and of searching for to trample the group’s First Modification rights.
Trickledown impact from federal messaging
Along with sounding the alarm about nationwide tendencies, Tuesday’s report drew a line between focused actions in particular states and heightened stress on particular person Muslim-majority teams.
Minnesota, for example, was a state the place the Trump administration initiated a hardline immigration push in December and January.
The enforcement effort was dubbed “Operation Metro Surge”, and it got here in response to a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota that Trump blamed on the state’s giant Somali American group.
Within the lead-up to Operation Metro Surge, the president repeatedly made racist remarks about Somali People, referring to them as “rubbish”.
CAIR’s report indicated that these federal actions resulted within the progress of anti-Muslim discrimination within the Midwestern state.
It recognized Minnesota as one among 5 states — together with Florida, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas — the place complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination have steadily risen during the last three years.
Minnesota noticed a 96 % enhance from 2024 to 2025, with 23 % of complaints lodged within the remaining month of final yr.
CAIR’s report additionally cited heightened stress on the Afghan group within the US.
Final November, an Afghan man was recognized as a suspect within the deadly taking pictures of two members of the US Nationwide Guard in Washington, DC.
The Trump administration responded by imposing a blanket pause on Afghan visa and immigration processing. Within the wake of the assault, CAIR mentioned Afghans had been “collectively handled as suspicious” within the US and confronted elevated scrutiny.
Impacts on training
On the state stage, CAIR’s report recognized actions in Texas and Florida as stigmatising points of Muslim life.
In Florida, for example, lawmakers not too long ago superior a invoice referred to as HB 1471, which incorporates punishments for colleges and college students linked to “overseas terrorist organisations”, as designated by the state. That might embody the withholding of college voucher funds or expulsion for particular person college students.
Whereas proponents of the legislation say it doesn’t point out faith or nationality, critics level out that state authorities have already moved to label Muslim teams like CAIR as “terrorist” in nature.
“These efforts elevate the danger of lawful Muslim participation in Florida civic life and contribute to a story that locations Muslims as outdoors the circle of protected spiritual and civic engagement,” the report mentioned.
Already, CAIR mentioned dozens of pro-Palestinian pupil protesters and college supporters have confronted an ongoing sample of discrimination for his or her advocacy work, notably since Trump returned to workplace in 2025.
A number of, together with Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Madhawi and Badar Khan Sur, are at the moment embroiled in Trump-led efforts to deport them.
The Trump administration has additionally sought to penalise universities that noticed pro-Palestinian protests unfold on their campuses.
Some prime colleges have confronted civil rights probes and had their federal funds frozen. Others have been compelled to just accept settlements that contain multimillion-dollar fines.
The Trump administration has led such efforts beneath the auspices of combatting anti-Jewish sentiment.
However CAIR famous the Trump administration has relied on the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Affiliation’s (IHRA) definition of “antisemitism” in its justification, which is “broadly seen as conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism”.
‘Deceiving you for their very own functions’
CAIR’s evaluation echoes a separate report from the US Heart for the Research of Organized Hate (CSOH), printed on Monday.
That report concluded that the launch of the US-Israeli warfare with Iran “accelerated” the unfold of dangerous content material concentrating on American Muslims.
On-line commentators have more and more adopted “dehumanising language” because the warfare started, referring to Muslims as “pests”, “rats”, “vermin”, “parasites” and an “infestation”, in keeping with the CSOH report.
“Such language has traditionally preceded and enabled probably the most excessive types of violence towards focused communities,” it warned.
On Tuesday, Sawyer rejected the narrative that Muslims should not part of the USA’s social material, mentioning that they’ve been current within the US since its founding.
Wanting ahead, he warned of politicians searching for to make use of anti-Muslim rhetoric for political ends.
“Anybody who makes an attempt to say that our nation is something apart from a nation the place many religions thrive — and that Islam is an American faith — is deceiving you for their very own functions,” Sawyer mentioned.
“We must always all be very clear and conscious of why politicians are placing ahead sure agendas to exclude People from the flexibility to take part within the civic and spiritual lifetime of this nation.”
