SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Months after two terrorists killed three men at a San Diego mosque, the City Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a working definition of Islamophobia with the intention of taking a moral stance against hate.
Dozens, including faith leaders, spoke in favor of the proposed definition, which reads: "Islamophobia is a form of racism, prejudice, discrimination, hostility, or hatred directed toward Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim, or their property, that targets expressions of Muslim identity or perceived Muslim identity and may manifest through speech, conduct, institutional practices, exclusion, intimidation, harassment, or violence."
Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera and Council President Joe LaCava proposed the action, the definition above serving as "an educational tool to help the city identify, condemn, and combat anti-Muslim hate and would reaffirm the city's commitment to religious freedom and civil rights," according to a statement from the council members.
On May 18, a pair of teenagers motivated by white nationalism gunned down the victims at the Islamic Center of San Diego before fleeing and fatally shooting themselves.
The victims -- mosque security guard Amin Abdullah, 51, and congregation members Nadir Awad, 57, and Mansour Kaziha, 78 -- "sacrificed their lives to protect the entire community inside the Islamic Center of San Diego," ICSD Imam Taha Hassane said.
"In an ideal San Diego, people of all faiths and backgrounds would feel safe and loved. Tragically, that is not the case. These are hard times," Elo Rivera said, noting that some members of the Muslim community did not feel supported by the city following the shooting. "Some of those harms have occurred here in these chambers."
Following the May attacks, the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at UC San Diego found that 88% of surveyed Muslims in San Diego County reported feeling less safe in their community, 74% reported increased concern for their personal safety because they are Muslim and nearly half expressed concern that threats against Muslims are not taken seriously.
Earlier this year, the council adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of Antisemitism, a move that has proved controversial owing to that definition's repeated references to Israel, which skeptics said conflates the Jewish community with that country. Muslim leaders told city leaders they were not consulted regarding that definition. Jewish faith leaders were also not consulted regarding the Islamophobia definition passed Tuesday.
Councilman Kent Lee said the move taken by the council was the "bare minimum" and La Cava said the action Tuesday was "just the beginning."
"This is an effort to carve a path forward from the horrific event," he said. "Hate has no room, no home in San Diego."
Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell agreed, saying Tuesday's vote sets a standard.
"When one community is targeted for its faith, we all have a responsibility to stand up and say `not here, not in California, not in America,"' she said. "We must always remember an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us."
Tasha Williams, a community activist and former candidate for mayor, said San Diego needed to follow the lead of other communities and use city resources to create an active shooter alert network, referencing not only the Islamic Center of San Diego, but also the earlier Chabad of Poway hate crime, which left one person dead and three injured.
Elo-Rivera and LaCava both said they supported the idea and would begin working toward such an alert system.
Following the May 18 attack, Abdullah Tahiri, president of the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego, told reporters that his community was in a state of deep shock and mourning.
"This act of what we call domestic terrorism against the Islamic Center of San Diego, this was not only a mass shooting that happened at a religious institution, but this was a school mass shooting," Tahiri said. "And if it weren't for the bravery and selflessness of Amin Abdullah, the security guard who sacrificed his life, we'd have countless children dead today."
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters that Abdullah's actions, including promptly instituting a lockdown of the Eckstrom Avenue mosque and then engaging the killers in gunfire, "without a doubt delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred these two (shooters) from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque, where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects."
"Tragically, he died in that gunbattle," Wahl said.
Awad and Kaziha also helped minimize the shooters' opportunities for inflicting further harm, according to police.
"The other two victims, as best we can tell with the video surveillance at the mosque, drew the attention of both of these suspects back out into the parking lot area, where they were unfortunately unable to flee, and both suspects were able to successfully corner them and kill both of them while both suspects were outside," Wahl said during the news conference at downtown SDPD headquarters. "The massive (police) response that was seconds away undoubtedly pushed both of the suspects to run back to their vehicle and flee the parking lot.
"And I want to be very clear -- all three of our victims did not die in vain. Without distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals, without question there would have been many more fatalities yesterday."
Police received reports of another shooting in the area, this one just south of the Islamic center. Investigators later determined that the suspected shooters -- Cain Lee Clark, 17, and 18-year-old Caleb Liam Vazquez, both of San Diego -- had, while fleeing, randomly fired on a landscaper working on Salerno Street, missing him and leaving him uninjured, police said.
Not long after the second shooting was reported, officers were called to yet another nearby location. There, in the 3800 block of Hatton Street, a vehicle was stopped in the roadway, and inside it were the bodies of the suspected perpetrators of the shooting spree. They had shot themselves, according to police.
"Writings found in the vehicle described hatred toward various religions and races," the SDPD asserted in an online statement.
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