How San Diego Let CAIR Define “Islamophobia”

This special edition is an early look for premium members. On Monday, Focus on Western Islamism, the Forum’s publication on Islamism in the West, will publish an investigation of how San Diego’s new definition of “Islamophobia” came to be drafted in the local office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It draws on nearly 2,000 pages of city records. Premium members can read the full article below, a day early, and every Forum donor reads it with the Forum’s compliments. The opening is free for every reader, and the full article will be open to all at FWI on Monday.

How San Diego Let CAIR Define “Islamophobia”

San Diego’s new definition of “Islamophobia” was drafted in the local office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group named in a Hamas-financing case and designated a terrorist organization by two American governors. Nearly 2,000 pages of city records show how it happened.

On September 15, 2026, the San Diego City Council adopted a working definition of “Islamophobia” and asked that it be sent to every city department, including the police. The vote was 8 to 0. The definition was drafted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Federal prosecutors named CAIR, though they never charged it, as a coconspirator in a Hamas-financing case, and the governors of Texas and Florida have designated it a terrorist organization.

The resolution does not say who wrote it. This is the story of how CAIR’s text became San Diego’s policy, drawn from nearly 2,000 pages of city records obtained by the Middle East Forum.

The city had every reason to act. On May 18, 2026, two teenagers attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego and murdered three men: a security guard, Amin Abdullah, and two congregants, Nadir Awad and Mansour Kaziha. About 140 students were on the campus. The city’s staff report, the memo that goes to the council with a measure, says the three men kept the attacker from reaching the school.

A prosecutor later said the killers had planned to attack “a Jewish temple and African American students at a public high school” next. Afterward, according to a survey the resolution cites, 88 percent of Muslims surveyed in San Diego County felt less safe. San Diego owed its Muslim residents an answer. The records show who wrote it.

This early look continues below for premium members: the proof of authorship, almost five years of CAIR’s drafts for the city, the sixty-one days from CAIR’s draft to the council’s vote, and the questions the city has not answered. Every donor to the Middle East Forum receives premium membership with the Forum’s compliments; if your invitation has not arrived, write [email protected]. The full article will be published Monday at Focus on Western Islamism, open to every reader.