Between 2022 and 2025, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s Islamophobia Index increased by 8 points. The Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that online Islamophobia was widespread throughout Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral race in New York City. From June to October 2025, the study found that online Islamophobic narratives frequently labeled Mamdani as a “terrorist,” “jihadist,” and a “radical Muslim.” Use of such terminology supports Islamophobic tropes across both online and offline spaces.
This example reflects only one dimension of Islamophobia in the United States. Closer to home, students at the University of Houston’s Muslim Student Association recently were victims of an Islamophobic attack on October 30 at Lynn Eusan Park on campus, where a man approached their gathering, threw a Quran into a bonfire, and shouted anti-Muslim messages through a megaphone.
More examples of rising Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments can be seen in Governor Greg Abbott’s recent designation of a Muslim civil rights organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim Brotherhood, as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.” His claims that CAIR seeks to impose Sharia or Islamic law and establish “Islam’s mastership of the world” (whatever that means) are both unfounded and rooted in Islamophobic tropes. In moments like these, it becomes even more vital for the common good to invest in spaces like the new Ismaili Center in Texas’ largest city.
