(RNS) — For years before Monday’s deadly shooting, the Islamic Center of San Diego stood out as a place that welcomed anyone through its doors — Muslim or not. The mosque’s imam, Taha Hassane, spent decades cultivating relationships with clergy, neighbors and community activists from across the city.
Hassane told RNS in an interview he believes in showing up for others and “trying to make our society the best in terms of acceptance, tolerance.”
In the hours after the shooting that killed three members of the mosque, interfaith leaders and allies started crowding vigils to stand in solidarity with Hassane and his community. Their response to the tragedy, Muslim community members said, offered a strong rebuke to the anti-Muslim rhetoric that has escalated in recent months and has shadowed the mosque for decades.
The shooting, which is being investigated as a hate crime, shattered what had long felt like a safe haven for worshippers and neighbors alike. But mosque leaders insist it will remain a place for everyone. At the first press conference hours after the shooting, Hassane again affirmed his mosque’s role.
“We never ask people when they show up at the door of the Islamic Center … whether you are Muslim or not because everyone is welcome,” he said Monday (May 18).
The Rev. Susan Brown Snook, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, has worked with Hassane on supporting immigrants in recent years. She said it was time to show him and his community support.
Imam Taha Hassane, center, embraces another person as they attend a vigil, the day after a shooting, outside of the Islamic Center of San Diego, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“Many Muslims feel misunderstood, unsafe, unsecure, under attack, and the fact of Christians and others being able to show up for them and say, ‘we are mourning with you, we are here to be in solidarity with you,’ I think that that in itself is important,” she told RNS in an interview Wednesday.
Omar Abusham, who grew up attending the mosque, said its deep ties to the wider San Diego community are what set it apart from other houses of worship. He now works as the programs and outreach coordinator at San Diego’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“It was genuinely a second home,” he said of the Islamic Center. “We have our friends there, we have our families there. It was a place that united everyone, and it wasn’t just for Muslims.”
The Islamic Center has hosted Black History Month programs, events about Palestine and Sudan, and gatherings that drew curious neighbors and Jewish and Christian allies, he said.
“It was a place that welcomed everyone — it still is. There’s a lot of grief right now, but it’s a place that we’ll continue to go to,” Abusham said.
Nicole Witherow prays beside flowers placed outside of the Islamic Center of San Diego, the day after a shooting, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Abusham credited Hassane for building relationships with people across San Diego. Support from interfaith leaders and laypeople shows the Muslim community that it is not alone in mourning, he said.
“So many faith leaders came out without even being asked,” Abusham said. “They came to show support and to tell us that we are with you, our community is with you, and what happened does not represent the greater San Diego community.”
San Diego police said the two teenage shooting suspects were radicalized online. They espoused “general hate,” according to the FBI, and the department found “writings and various ideologies outlining religious and racial beliefs of how the world they envisioned should look.” The suspects were found dead in a nearby car in what police described as a double suicide.
Experts who reviewed the suspects’ manifesto said they appeared to believe in white supremacist ideologies, including an extremist view that racist violence will speed up the collapse of the social order and establish a white ethnostate, local media reported.
At a vigil Tuesday near the mosque, community members, faith leaders and elected officials spoke about the need to confront rising hate.
Bobby Wallace, a member of the Kumeyaay Nation, at the vigil described Monday’s shooting as “a sickness that’s spreading everywhere.” A longtime friend of Hassane, Wallace encouraged people to hold onto faith and make change in the world.
A representative for San Diego Catholic Bishop Michael Pham spoke at the vigil, reading a statement from the bishop saying the diocese stood “united in solidarity and prayer” with the Muslim community. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also shared a statement expressing “sorrow and prayerful solidarity” after the attack.
“The Islamic Center has been a longtime partner in our collaborative work for justice, especially in accompanying immigrants,” Pham said in the statement. “Houses of worship must always be sanctuaries of peace, safety, and prayer. An attack on one faith community is an attack on the sacred dignity of all human life.”
The Jewish Federation of San Diego also released a statement condemning the attack and offering prayers and support to the mosque, as did Jewish groups around the country.
“Violence against any house of worship is intolerable,” the Jewish Federation of San Diego’s statement said. “Every person deserves to gather in prayer, community, and peace without fear for their safety. This awful and horrifying act of violence has shaken communities across San Diego and struck at the core of our shared humanity and values.”
Muslim advocates have warned in recent months of increasing anti-Muslim bigotry, including from elected officials and social media influencers. Reported Islamophobic incidents rose sharply in 2025 compared with previous years, according to multiple groups that track hate incidents.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, which condemned the shooting as a “horrific anti-Muslim terror attack,” said it tracked an “unprecedented eleven-fold increase in threats and attacks against American Muslims since January 2026.”
And in recent months, the largest Jewish temple in Michigan and a Catholic church in Minnesota were attacked, the latter attack killing two children. And over the past 25 years, there have been about 400 deadly incidents at religious institutions, resulting in 512 deaths and more than 200 victims injured, according to data by the nonpartisan Violence Prevention Project.
Speaking at the vigil, Hussam Ayloush, CAIR California executive director, said the attack was meant to make Muslims feel “afraid, abandoned and alone.” But he said solidarity from other communities “reminds us that hate will never have the final word.”
Snook said that in the coming months, she hopes to engage with diverse faith communities in San Diego to share security strategies to help ensure their collective safety. She called on people to remember the heroism of the three men killed while protecting their community, to “humanize” Muslims and to “appreciate the best in each other.”
“I hope that this arouses people’s hearts to want to protect their minority neighbors,” she said. “I hope it helps all of us to say no, we cannot tolerate people being unsafe, and we cannot tolerate racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism that leads to people being unsafe.”