DEARBORN,
MICH. – Muslim Americans fear their religion will be demonized and
Islamophobia will spread after a young Muslim couple was accused of carrying
out one of the bloodiest mass killings in the United States.

Across
the country, Muslim Americans responded with shock and outrage after a shooting
in which authorities said Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27,
stormed a holiday party attended by San Bernardino County employees in
California on Wednesday, killing 14 people and wounding 21. 

“I
was at the gym yesterday while the shooting was taking place and all the TVs
were showing that footage and all I could keep thinking to myself is ‘God, I
hope they don’t have any Eastern descent, not just Middle Eastern, anything
we’d associate with a Muslim’,” said Adam Hashem, 32, in Dearborn, a
Detroit suburb with one of the country’s largest Muslim populations.

“We’re
all worried. We’re all concerned,” he said.

It
was the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School
massacre three years ago. While the motivation remained unclear as authorities
investigated the attack, details of Farook and Malik began to emerge. Farook
was described as a second-generation American born in Illinois and raised by
Pakistani parents. Malik was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia until
she was introduced to Farook.[nL1N13S0B3] 

San
Bernardino police said they found pipe bombs and several thousands rounds of
ammunition at the residence of the couple, who died in a shoot-out with police.

In
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Attari Supermarket bustled on Thursday with customers
shopping for Middle Eastern products.

“In
every culture and in every religion there are bad apples that will spoil the
rest of the apples. That has happened toward us,” said Dawod Dawod, a 25-year-old
Muslim American, who manages the store that his family has owned for a
decade. 

Between
taking orders over the phone, Dawod said he was concerned that politicians will
use the mass shooting as a way to further demonize Muslims. He noted Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump’s endorsement of the idea of creating a
Muslim database. “It’s scary.” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of
Muslims are hardworking, good people.”

Muslim
community groups condemned the massacre and urged the public not to blame Islam
or Muslims.

“The
Muslim community stands shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Americans in
repudiating any twisted mindset that would claim to justify such sickening acts
of violence,” said Hussam Ayloush, an executive director at the Council on
American-Islamic Relations.

Within
hours of the shooting, his group had organized a news conference with Los
Angeles Muslim leaders and the brother of suspected shooter Malik to condemn
the assault. The speed at which they went on live television underlined the
depth of concerns in a community already buffeted by a rise in anti-Muslim
rhetoric this year and increased public scrutiny after the Nov. 13 attacks in
Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State militants.

Some
Muslims say they have felt singled out during a U.S. presidential race that has
tapped a vein of anger and bigotry – from comments by Trump to those by fellow
Republican candidate Ben Carson, who said in September Muslims were unfit for
the presidency of the United States. There are some 2.8 million Muslims in the
country.

 “HORRIFIED”

Some
Muslims questioned whether this week’s shooting will embolden supporters of
Trump, who is current front-runner to be his party’s nominee in the November
2016 election and who has backed the idea of requiring all Muslims living in
the United States to register in a special database as a counter-terrorism
measure.

Critics
have also accused Trump of stirring resentment toward Muslims by asserting that
he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the destruction of the
World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. That claim has been disputed by
public officials.

Faizul
Khan, 74, an Imam at the Islamic Society of the Washington Area, said he was
“horrified” by the San Bernadino shooting. “Unfortunately people don’t
understand that we as Muslims, we basically want to promote what is good and
just for the entire humanity.” 

He
said he feared the shooting would strengthen calls to increase surveillance on
mosques.

Achraf
Issam, 22, national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association in
Silver Spring, Maryland, said it makes no more sense to say that Islam led to
the San Bernardino shootings than to say Christianity led to an attack on the
Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last week by a suspect police have named
as Robert Lewis Dear.

“No
one should say that because this couple is Muslim that it led them to commit
those acts,” he said.

That
sentiment was echoed by Sara Nabhan, 20, a junior majoring in biology at the
University of Houston who was born in Jordan and came to Texas when she was 2
years old. 

“Two
people’s actions do not constitute a whole population’s actions,” she
said.

Jersey
City real-estate agent Magdy Ali, 52 and of Egyptian descent, said he uses the
name Alex when working to avoid conflict with people who distrust Islam. He
said he expects Trump to use Wednesday’s massacre to push for anti-Muslim
measures such as monitoring of U.S. mosques.

“We
are in a jam right now,” he said