The killing of three people at a mosque in San Diego has prompted renewed calls for Jewish and Muslim communities to address anti-Muslim hate and antisemitism as shared crises rather than competing grievances. In a commentary published by The Guardian on May 31, Binaifer Nowrojee, president of the Open Society Foundations, argued that both forms of bigotry are being driven by overlapping conspiracy theories and political fear-mongering that endanger open societies.
“The violence in San Diego came out of the demonization of Islam and the dehumanization of Muslims that has been around for decades,” Nowrojee wrote. She noted that Islam is frequently described in political and media circles as a backward or inherently violent religion representing a civilizational threat. Meanwhile, antisemitism persists through conspiracy theories alleging Jews secretly control governments, banks, and media, she wrote, pointing to attacks on philanthropist George Soros and the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Sometimes, Nowrojee wrote, these two hatreds fuse into a single conspiracy theory. She cited the white nationalist “great replacement theory,” which falsely claims a conspiratorial elite is replacing white majority populations with non-white immigrants. “It’s a single conspiracy theory that requires two elements at once: a Muslim population to fear, and a Jewish elite to blame,” she wrote.
Nowrojee’s commentary comes as both communities face record levels of hostility across the West following violence in the Middle East since October 2023, with political figures in Europe and the United States increasingly leveraging the grievances of one group against the other.
She noted that the two communities are increasingly pitted against one another by political figures. She pointed to arguments in Germany claiming antisemitism has been “imported” by migrants, and statements by French politician Marine Le Pen framing her party as a shield to protect Jewish people from “Islamist ideology.” In each case, Nowrojee wrote, the message suggests that for one community to be safe, the other must be feared.
Rising hostility coincides with the ongoing wars in the Middle East, Nowrojee said. She wrote that there has been a dangerous trend of collectively blaming Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government and Muslims for the actions of Hamas or other armed groups. “There must be space for the legitimate criticism of any state, government or ideology, but collective blame – the holding of a whole people responsible for the actions of an extreme few – must be refused,” she wrote.
Federal authorities have investigated the San Diego mosque attack as a hate crime, finding that the two teenage attackers met online and left behind writings referencing Nazi ideology. Nowrojee’s piece situates the San Diego violence within a broader pattern of rising hostility across the West.
Despite the rising tensions, Nowrojee highlighted moments of solidarity between the two communities. She noted that Jewish communities in San Diego were among the first to condemn the mosque shooting, and she recalled Muslim Americans raising funds for the Pittsburgh congregation after the Tree of Life massacre. She also pointed to a Syrian-born Muslim man who disarmed a gunman during a Hanukkah gathering at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last year.
The threats to Muslim and Jewish communities will eventually target others if left unaddressed, Nowrojee concluded. Defending them together, she wrote, is how an open society defends itself.