Within hours of Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic US Senate primary, Republican senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama declared that the party had “just voted to send a TERRORIST” to Washington.
asserted
party → declare → Washington
El-Sayed – or “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed”, as Tuberville called him on X – was a “RADICAL ISLAMIST” who would “do everything he can to destroy America”, he claimed.
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he → call → America
It was the opening shot in what researchers who track anti-Muslim sentiment describe as the most concentrated wave of Islamophobic rhetoric in US electoral politics since the 9/11 attacks, arriving at the exact moment Muslim candidates are winning office in unprecedented numbers.
“It’s probably the worst of what we’ve seen,” said Saher Selod, director of research at the non-partisan Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), which has tracked anti-Muslim sentiment nationally for a decade.
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which → track → decade
“We’re certainly seeing in 2025 and 2026, ahead of these midterms, really very Islamophobic ads – more so than what we saw after 9/11.”
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we → see → 9/11
ISPU’s 2025 Islamophobia Index, a 100-point scale built using common anti-Muslim stereotypes, rose from 25 in 2022 to 33 among the general public in 2025, with the sharpest increases among white and Hispanic Americans.
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Index → build → Americans
The Pew Research Center found in a survey this spring that 51% of US adults now say Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, up from just 25% six months after the 2001 attacks.
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Islam → find → attacks
The partisan gap on that question has widened sharply.
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gap → widen → question
Back in 2022 32% of likely Republican voters and 23% of Democrats in 2002 said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence, according to the Pew survey.
uncertain
Islam → say → survey
Today, 76% of Republicans say the same, and 29% of Democrats.
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% → say → Democrats
Anti-Muslim hate crimes reported to the FBI, which spiked to 481 in 2001 from 28 the year before, have never returned to pre-2001 levels, according to Pew’s research.
uncertain
which → report → research
The ISPU separately found that 63% of Muslims reported experiencing religious discrimination in the past year, the highest share of any faith group it measures.
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it → find → group
Set against that backdrop is a wave of Muslim electoral success.
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wave → Set → success
There are four Muslim members of US Congress, with a fifth likely on the way, compared with zero in 2001.
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fifth → be → 2001
Ghazala Hashmi became Virginia’s first Muslim woman elected to statewide office this year, as lieutenant governor.
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Hashmi → become → governor
Zohran Mamdani was inaugurated as New York’s first Muslim mayor in January 2025, and El-Sayed’s primary win put him on track to potentially become the first Muslim ever elected to the US Senate.
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win → inaugurate → Senate
The reaction to El-Sayed’s victory showed how quickly the rhetoric escalates.
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rhetoric → show → victory
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate found Islamophobic posts naming El-Sayed rose by nearly 1,900% in the week after his win, from an average of 155 to more than 3,000 a day.
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posts → find → 3,000
The attacks are also coming from the very top of the Republican party.
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attacks → come → party
Donald Trump infamously called in 2015 for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the US when he was running for president, and attempted to enact one via executive order in early 2017.
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he → call → 2017
After years of legal wrangling, the supreme court did allow Trump to implement a limited version of his travel restrictions for majority Muslim countries.
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Trump → allow → countries
This year, Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist” from the Oval Office, and separately claimed – without naming anyone – that “jihadists” were being elected to office “all over the place”.
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jihadists → call → place
Vice-president JD Vance, meanwhile, called El-Sayed “very, very evil” at a Michigan rally and, separately, invoked his own late grandfather to attack comments El-Sayed made in 2022 defending a legal challenge to an Oklahoma anti-Sharia ballot measure.
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Sayed → call → measure
The attacks go beyond one candidate, however.
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attacks → go → candidate
Senator Ted Cruz told Fox News that El-Sayed and Mamdani were “Islamists” who “want Sharia law” and “hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate capitalism, they hate America”.
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they → tell → America
Representative Nancy Mace posted that “every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic”, and followed up by writing that Islam “must be removed from civil society in the US”.
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Islam → post → US
In March, Representative Randy Fine of Florida wrote on X, “We need more Islamophobia, not less.
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We → write → Islamophobia
Fear of Islam is rational,” while Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee posted that “Muslims don’t belong in American society”.
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Muslims → post → society
For Mobashra Tazamal, associate director of Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, which studies Islamophobia globally, the shift is shockingly noticeable.
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shift → study → Islamophobia
“It is almost as if the veil has been lifted,” she said.
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she → lift → ?
“It is so bigoted, and it’s so crude, and there is no red line.
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it → ’ → ?
It’s just straight bigotry.
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It → ’ → ?
The rhetoric has also extended beyond individual candidates into policy fights.
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rhetoric → extend → fights
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has spent much of the summer campaigning against what he calls the imposition of Islamic law, ordering a review of state grants to two major airports and referring both to federal regulators over privately funded wudu stations, ritual washing facilities Muslims use before prayer, which he called illegal religious favoritism.
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he → spend → which
Abbott has separately fought a proposed mosque-anchored housing development outside Dallas.
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Abbott → fight → Dallas
Nationally, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate documented a coordinated campaign among 89 elected officials over 13 months, including 1,111 social media posts and eight bills, tied to a “Sharia Free America Caucus” that has grown to 65 members.
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that → document → members
The anti-Sharia campaigns are not new: close to two dozen states passed largely symbolic anti-Sharia laws in the early 2010s.
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states → pass → 2010s
It’s not something that’s real,” said Tazamal.
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Tazamal → ’ → ?
“It’s constructed, and then these politicians claim to be tackling this constructed problem that they create.”
uncertain
they → construct → that
Researchers caution against treating every attack on El-Sayed or Mamdani as bigotry.
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Researchers → caution → bigotry
El-Sayed drew criticism – including from Vance – after he responded to a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue by saying “hurt people hurt people”, noting that relatives of the attacker in Lebanon had recently been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
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relatives → draw → airstrike
…and 39 more, not listed.
