Blue Ribbon Task Force on Islamophobia

All members of the SDSU community can nominate themselves or another individual to serve as a volunteer member of the Blue Ribbon Task Force. 

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Desirable characteristics for members of the task force include the following:

• Demonstrate expertise and understanding of the nuances related to culture, traditions and experiences of MENA, Arab and Muslim communities.
• Maintain trauma-informed practices as important frameworks for being receptive to the specific needs of community members who have experienced harassment and discrimination.
• Recognize that issues or challenges individuals face are structural, institutional, statewide, and national, and need to be addressed at all of those levels.
• Understand the need to work together and across backgrounds, beliefs and religious practices to address these issues.
• Balance transparency with confidentiality when addressing the specific concerns of individuals. 

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Each nomination must include the nominee’s name, contact information, and a statement of interest that includes information about interest in serving as a member, topic expertise, and/or relevant experience.

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SDSU has called for nominations to identify qualified individuals to serve on the task force. Campus and community members will be asked to nominate individuals who demonstrate a commitment to promoting inclusivity, fostering understanding, and addressing issues related to Islamophobia and campus climate.

Members will be appointed by the university’s senior leadership in consultation with relevant campus organizations and community groups. Appointments will be prioritized for those with content expertise and/or who have studied or researched the lived experiences of MENA, Arab and Muslim peoples. 

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The task force will consist of 12-15 members, including faculty, staff, students, community members, and allies, who will serve one- to three-year appointments. 

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July 1, 2024.

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The selection of task force members will take place beginning in July, with a nomination and application process that will continue through June and July. Members of the task force will be announced in August 2024. The task force will commence its work beginning in September of 2024 and will meet regularly to fulfill its objectives. The task force is expected to produce its first annual report by May 15, 2025.

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The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Islamophobia at SDSU is devastated and horrified by the mass shooting that took place at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, 2026. We mourn the loss of three courageous community members, Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha (Abu El Ezz), and Nadir Awad, who sacrificed their lives to save over 140 children, faculty, and worshippers at the mosque. As we keep the Islamic Center community, the loved ones of these heroic men, as well as the entire Muslim community in our hearts, we also call for a clear-eyed reckoning with the forces that enable such violence.

Monday’s deadly, hate-motivated attack reaches our SDSU community in deeply personal ways. Many Muslim students, faculty and staff at SDSU attend the Islamic Center of San Diego and are personally connected to the victims and their families. Imam Taha, the Director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, is also a valued member of SDSU’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Islamophobia. We extend full support and unmitigated love to all those intimately touched by the violence, and we stand in solidarity with all those experiencing grief, fear, anger and pain in this moment.

Solidarity means following the lead of those most impacted. The Islamic Center of San Diego, the heartbeat of the community, is known for fostering community through peace, prayer, education, and belonging; through longstanding efforts to build intentional interfaith connections; and for leading community conversations about civil rights and social justice. Steadfast in this tradition, Imam Taha invites us to support our community by centering community care and healing: “it is time for us as a community to stand together firmly and to support one another... this is the time where we show our unity and where we show our love for one another." 

Though we know that the individual motives of the shooters do not tell the whole story of the broader institutional violence that enabled the killings, we do have information that their actions were grounded in white supremacy and motivated by hatreds that reach beyond anti-Muslim racism, also including anti-Blackness, transphobia, antisemitism, and xenophobia. Our collective response must be cross-coalitional, based in always understanding the connections among all of these forms of structural hatred, and working to combat them all.

In grief, we also act, because we know that the silencing and repression of our communities has contributed to creating a climate in which such unthinkable acts can occur. In the words of Task Force member Tazheen Nizam, executive director of Council on American Islamic Relations San Diego: “Your thoughts and prayers are welcome, but not enough. Your concerns are appreciated but not quite fitting. We need action.” Let us be clear that anti-Muslim racism in the US has a long history, and yet in this moment it is at a fever pitch. Monday’s horrific violence is not an isolated incident; it is proof that false and demonizing stereotypes that characterize all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists cause harm and have material impacts, and that they have a long and troubling history, which is currently resurging in the US. For decades, anti-Muslim and anti-SWANA racism has manifested in various forms including hate crimes, anti-Sharia legislation, anti-Muslim federal policies, surveillance programs, negative media representation, and even an unrealized governmental plan to intern “Middle Eastern Americans.” This legacy manifests today in unprecedented levels of Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian racism, most recently with a tangible “rise in anti-Muslim sentiment among elected officials” since 2025 as well as a resurgence in anti-Muslim hate that CAIR described as “fatal” in its 2024 report. As a Task Force, we work to eviscerate anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, and anti-SWANA racism through education and advocacy. But we also call on our institutions to support us by rejecting efforts to silence us – for instance, through the faulty IHRA definition of antisemitism or by limiting or curtailing our right to protest genocide. We demand an end to all repression so that our communities may thrive. 

We are irrepressible. We will heal.

For those seeking ways to support the community

• Support the families of the Martyrs of Islamic Center of San Diego
• ICSD Victim & Family Support Fund

For further learning about anti-Muslim racism and its intersections with anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-SWANA racism, please consult the sources below

What is Islamophobia, How Does it Manifest in the US, and Why is Anti-Muslim Racism a More Accurate Term?

• Elsadigh Elsheikh and Basima Sisemore, “Islamophobia through the Eyes of Muslims.” Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. September 29, 2021. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/islamophobia-survey (a pdf of the full report is available)
• Islamophobia: A Threat to All
  • Watch a video lecture and conversation with Dalia Mogahed 
• “Islamophobia Is Racism: Resource for Teaching & Learning about anti-Muslim Racism in the United States,” #IslamophobiaIsRacism syllabus
• Arun Kundnani, The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the War on Terror (London: Verso, 2014).
  • Discusses Islamophobia as a form of structural racism, accelerated throughout the “war on terror”; read an excerpt
  • Watch a video of Kundnani explaining the key ideas
• Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does it Feel to be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America (NY: Penguin, 2009)
  • Watch Moustafa Bayoumi’s explanation of anti-Muslim racism and violence in relation to white supremacy, far right extremism, and “the great replacement theory”

What is anti-Palestinian racism and how does it fuel anti-Muslim racism?

• Indlieb Farazi Saber, “‘Seen as Less Human’: Why Has Islamophobia Surged During Israel’s Gaza War?” Al Jazeera, Dec 21, 2023
• “Understanding Anti-Palestinian Racism”
• “Dismantling Anti-Palestinian Racism: Disrupt Dehumanization, Center Palestinian Life, Imagine Liberation for All”
• Moustafa Bayoumi, “Decades of spying and repression: the anti-Palestinian origins of American Islamophobia,” The Guardian, May 23, 2024

How media representation and popular stereotypes fuel anti-Muslim and anti-SWANA racism

• Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11 (NY: New York University Press, 2012)
  • Watch a conversation on “Gift of the Gab” about Muslim Representation in the US Media, on the “I’m a Muslim (and That’s OK!)” podcast

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