San Diego Muslim community responds to mosque shooting with resilience

At about 11:40 local time, Nawal A-Nouri received a WhatsApp message, notifying her of an active shooter at her seven-year-old daughter's school at the Islamic Center of San Diego - where two gunman opened fire on Monday, killing three in what has been called a hate crime.

"It completely didn't hit me that it was an active shooter the way they had described it. I was definitely in a state of shock, and pretty frozen at home," she said.

Her husband Omar Al-Nouri, a vascular surgeon in the neighbouring city of La Jolla, received the same message and rushed down to the school. He told the BBC he was both overwhelmed and comforted by the massive police presence when he arrived at the centre, San Diego County's second largest mosque, which also houses a primary school.

"I'm not doing so good," Omar Al-Nouri said. "I just had a vision in my mind of the shooters going into the school and encountering my child or another child, I just can't get that vision out of my head."

The attack has sent shockwaves through the community - waves of grief and panic - but also a jolt towards unity after tragedy, a call to come together to condemn hateful rhetoric against Muslims and also to embrace and celebrate the lives lost at the thriving centre.

Thousands of people from across California and the US travelled to a public funeral prayer here on Thursday, to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community and pray with the families of the victims.

A security guard, the husband of a teacher at the school and a beloved shopkeeper who called 911 were fatally shot before one of the suspects turned a gun on his companion and then killed himself, as police closed in on their car in the residential Clairemont neighborhood.

"Even if you anticipate at some point the worst might happen, you prepare for it, but you never expect it to happen," says Tazheen Nizam of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organisation in the US.

"Nobody expected something of this gravity to take place," she tells the BBC. "We had one security guard. The gate was open."

Tucked into a residential neighbourhood off of a bustling thoroughfare, the centre is flanked by single-family homes, schools, a park and places of worship. Many Muslims - including new migrants, young families and elder generations - live in the area.

Dr Muhammad Rahman, one of those residents, has two children who attend the centre's school. He was at home when he was notified that an active shooter was on campus. His children were on the playground during the shooting.

"The parents are grieving. We are all devastated. All praise be to Allah," he tells the BBC at the funeral prayers, where he is helping with crowd control. "God's mercy saved all these kids."

He adds: "We are strong. We are resilient. We will move forward. That is our strength as a community. It will makes us stronger as a community."

The Islamic Center of San Diego is a pillar of the Muslim community, which makes up less than 1% of the population in the San Diego metro area, according to a Pew Research study from 2023-24.

Officials said the two suspects were motivated by a "broad hatred" and had been radicalised online. Investigators found a manifesto belonging to the pair, aged 17 and 18, that contained Islamophobic, anti-semitic and misogynistic writings.

The FBI also recovered 30 guns and a crossbow from three area residences associated with the teens, who have not been named publicly by law enforcement.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said the attack is "being fully investigated as a white-supremacist hate crime".

Authorities have credited emergency protocols, staff training and coordinated response procedures with saving 140 children and staff on campus.

The massive crowds who gathered in a park near San Diego State University's Snapdragon Stadium on Thursday brought comfort to Ali Alshahin, who has children at the centre's school. Together, under the bright California sun, they prayed Salat al-Janazah and paid respect to the victims, Amin Abdullah, Nadir Awad and Mansour Kaziha.

"They are the reason my kids are alive today," he tells the BBC of the three, adding his children used to call Abdullah "Uncle Policeman".

He, like other mothers and fathers here, hopes this tragedy will inspire change nationwide when it comes to gun violence.

"No child should endure that - walk by dead bodies and blood," he says.

A physician who grew up in and works in San Diego, Aayeh Fatayerji, tells the BBC she attended the prayer to "stand in solidarity with the community after this despicable act of hate".

She describes the community as both "tight-knit" and diverse, saying it brings together "people from all countries - people who are born here in America as well as people who have immigrated here."

"It's a very welcoming city for a lot of cultures," she says. "It's a peaceful city, it's a lovely city. We welcome everybody."

On Tuesday, a community vigil at Lindbergh Neighborhood Park near the centre was also full of people, with hundreds turning up and a series of speakers speaking warmly of their fallen "brothers" in the faith.

Many expressed gratitude for Amin Abdullah, the centre's security guard who has been hailed as a hero for confronting the gunmen and initiating lockdown protocols believed to have prevented a greater loss of life.

Abdullah's daughter Hawaa Abdullah, surrounded by her seven siblings during a media appearance on Tuesday, said their father would want the community to stand together as one.

"He wants all of us to be better, regardless of who we are, what we identify as," she said. "He wants us to be better, and that's exactly what I, my family, and I hope every single other person here strives to do every single day - make this world a better place."

Imam Taha Hassane, the director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, said the centre is used to receiving hate mail and messages and he has seen people cursing when they drive by, but he never expected "such a horrible" crime to occur.

"I never, ever expected an active shooter coming to our house of worship," he tells the BBC after the funeral prayers. "I know what's going on in the world. I have seen shootings taking place in houses of worship, schools, malls. But happening here? It never came through my mind."

President of the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego Abdullah Tahiri, though, said he cannot say he is surprised, even while he is horrified. He blamed the bloodshed on a heated political climate that has "tolerated, normalised, federalised, institutionalised, routinised, and actively weaponised" anti-Muslim sentiment for years.

"When figures in the highest halls of the government dehumanise Muslims, paint our institutions as threats, and treat our community with suspicion, they lay the groundwork for real-world violence we witnessed," he said at a media conference on Tuesday.

Tahiri and others at the event said the community will not be intimidated.

"We will mourn, we will heal, and we will continue to stand strong, rooted in justice, dignity and an unwavering support and faith in our religious traditions," he said.

Another imam at the centre, Dr Saad Eldegewi, said the centre supports the entire community, not just Muslims.

"We're not going to stop," he said. "We'll move forward. This is our nation. This is our country. We are here to spread love."

"Hate speech leads to hate crimes. Hate speech leads to terrorism, extremism and we are here to fight all that in all legal ways. In all peaceful ways."

It had taken about five hours after the shooting to reunite with Maya, who had joined about 20 children in her class in a lockdown procedure they had practised. She recalled to her parents how police swarmed the school and broke down their door, and how they lined up to get to safety.

"The teacher said that overall the kids listened and they did great," Nawal Al-Nouri said. "And that kind of like broke my heart in a way, because I'm thinking of the teachers, and how scared they were. And they're really proud of the students."

"I was just really proud of her," Omar Al-Nouri added.

"My biggest fear and concern is, I just don't want her to be afraid of going back to school, going back to the masjid, to the mosque."