By David K. Trimble

A vicious attack left three innocent people dead at a mosque in San Diego late Monday morning. Two teenage assailants, both of whom later committed suicide, opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, tragically killing a security officer (a father of eight whose actions the police chief called “heroic”) and two other men who valiantly tried to lure the shooters away from the mosque. There is also a school within the Center, but, thanks in part to the decisive actions of the victims, the shooters were unable to harm any children. 

Media reports indicate that investigators have uncovered “anti-Islamic writings” in the attackers’ vehicle and elsewhere during the execution of subsequent search warrants. While their motives remain under investigation, it is incumbent upon all Americans of good will, even at this early stage, to proclaim yet again that acts of violence motivated by religious animus are unequivocally evil and anti-American.

This mosque attack comes just two months after a gunman rammed his pickup truck through the doors of a preschool at the largest synagogue in Michigan, Temple Israel, before being repelled by security personnel during an exchange of gunfire and the assailant taking his own life (March 2026). And it comes fewer than 8 months after a violent assault during a worship service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, which left 4 congregants dead, another 8 injured, and a house of worship in flames (October 2025). Only a month before that incident, an attacker opened fire on Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a Mass mainly attended by students, parents, and teachers associated with the parish school, leaving 2 children dead and 21 others wounded, 18 of whom were children (September 2025). And about 11 months ago, an armed man burst into a Sunday morning service at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, in which a security officer also heroically intervened, killing the gunman before he could hurt anyone (June 2025).

Religious freedom, as enshrined in our Constitution, secures the space both for exercising our faith and encountering one another in peace. Neither violence nor coercion nor intimidation find any refuge in religious freedom. All faith communities who embrace this vision of America’s First Freedom are welcome in our extraordinary experiment in ordered liberty.

But there is yet a more profound issue to consider in this attack in San Diego and similar incidents: the unspeakably tragic loss of precious human life created in the image and likeness of a loving God. Only with that in mind can we begin to confront the full weight of these senseless acts of violence, and recognize the deepest basis for condemning them.

May local, state, and federal law enforcement complete their investigations with all due diligence and haste. But, as I stated following the attack in Grand Blanc, making these criminal acts unthinkable is the real remedy, and that will require tapping into far deeper moral and spiritual resources. Americans of faith can and should lead the way. 

I mourn with, and pray for, our Muslim neighbors in southern California during this unsettling time. 

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David K. Trimble is President of the Religious Freedom Institute.