US sees spike in Islamophobia amid war on Iran

The US is seeing a spike in Islamophobia in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran, adding to an already high level of hate over the past three years.

A report issued on 9 March by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSOH) found that the ongoing war has triggered a surge in anti-Muslim hate online in the US.

"Since the start of 2026, harmful content targeting Muslims across social media platforms has escalated at an alarming pace," reads the report, noting that the level of anti-Muslim posts had already been at a steady high since the onset of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023.

The report goes on to say that this has been compounded by hateful rhetoric by political leaders, most visibly US President Donald Trump, who has told Muslim members of Congress to go back to their countries, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who, when referring to Iranians, has called their religion misguided.

Moreover, in the US war on Iran, military leaders have invoked biblical language. According to complaints received by the Military Freedom Foundation, a commander said war was all part of "God's divine plan" and said it would "cause Armageddon".

In the online sphere, hateful rhetoric is amplified with reposts. Many of these social media posts refer to Muslims with dehumanising language, such as rats, parasites, pests and vermin.

"These developments have contributed to a climate of fear and insecurity for Muslim communities across the United States," Niala Mohammad, a research director for CSOH, told The New Arab.

"The spike in Islamophobia after the US war with Iran is driven by a combination of wartime fear narratives, viral online disinformation, political rhetoric, and pre-existing anti-Muslim hostility that intensified during earlier conflicts like Gaza," she said.

She suggests more active monitoring and moderation of social media sites, as well as more advocacy to counter hate narratives.

In addition to an elevated level of Islamophobia correlated with Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, there has also been over a year of hardline anti-immigrant crackdowns under US President Donald Trump. This has included bans on citizens from Muslim countries, immigration raids and deportations (often not related to criminal offences). 

Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells TNA that in their three decades of tracking Islamophobia, the only year they saw a drop was in 2022, before a major spike with Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

Generally, he says Muslims in the US do not tend to be viewed favourably, making them vulnerable to online attacks and hardline policies.

"I think Muslims are in disfavour," Saylor told TNA. "We're often used as a testing ground. Muslims are often put in a national security frame to scare people."

He emphasises, however, that Muslims are not the only ones experiencing a surge of hate during this time. 

"There is a broad attack on people for the way they think, look and worship, with the idea that they don't belong," he said.