The Muslim Student Association organized a vigil on Dexter Lawn on Tuesday to honor those killed in the recent San Diego mosque shooting. On May 18, two teenagers fatally shot three people outside the Islamic Center of San Diego, the largest mosque in the county.
The three victims were Amin Abdullah, 51, the mosque’s security guard; Mansour Kaziha, 78, a founding member and longtime caretaker of the center; and Nadir Awad, 57, a neighbor who heard the shots and ran toward the mosque to help. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime because of writings found in the suspects’ vehicle describing hatred toward various religions and races, according to the San Diego Police Department.
For members of the MSA, the shooting was unexpected but not surprising.
“As I’m growing up, the threat of violence against my Muslim and even Arab identity is just growing closer and closer,” said Iyad Jamali, former MSA president and comparative ethnic studies senior.
He said there is a pattern that has been building for years. One moment that had first personally affected him was the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, where his uncle was present.
“The San Diego shooting is a frightening reminder of how close that violence can get,” he said.
Two years ago, the Regional MSA West Conference was hosted at the University of San Diego, where Cal Poly MSA students prayed at the Islamic Center of San Diego. They knew the space and the people inside it, which made showing up part of a national display of support for the victims’ families and the San Diego community, according to the Cal Poly Muslim Student Association.
“The death or the killing of one community member is as if a whole institution has fallen,” Jamali said. “Every single person in our community holds such closeness to our hearts.”
The Muslim Student Association had asked Cal Poly to send a campus-wide email addressing the violence, but the request went unanswered. Without an institutional statement, they felt there were no visible consequences for those who target Muslims.
“We want the broader Cal Poly community to understand the importance of unity in the wake of such violence, regardless of whether or not that violence was committed against a community that you consider your own,” the Cal Poly Muslim Student Association said.
Organizers said hatred and bigotry affect multiple communities, and they wanted attendees to recognize that the same forces behind this attack are those perpetuating violence against all minority groups.
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Nicholas Monteiro, a history senior, learned about the vigil through the Muslim Student Association’s Instagram and felt compelled to show up.
“It feels like my friends go through trauma every single month. There is always something new and horrible happening,” he said.
Since October 7, 2023, he said he had witnessed growing divisiveness and conflict directed toward Muslim and Palestinian students on campus that often went dismissed.
Though not Muslim himself, Monteiro said he felt “a responsibility to be here with this community and to show solidarity with them.”
The vigil on Dexter Lawn was one of the few organized responses to the shooting. More information can be found at the Cal Poly SLO Muslim Student Association.