Last week, a federal court in Detroit sentenced 73-year-old Michael Shapiro, a resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, to 18 months in prison for threatening the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its staff in late 2023.

According to court records, Shapiro left six threatening and profanity-laced voicemails over a two-week period in December 2023 on the phone line of CAIR’s Canton Township office.

In November 2024, Shapiro pleaded guilty to transmitting interstate threats, a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, under a plea agreement, the federal prosecutor requested that Shapiro serve 27 additional months in prison following his current 24-month sentence in Florida for a similar case, where he had threatened a member of Congress and their family.

Shapiro is currently serving that 24-month sentence after being convicted in August 2023 of leaving death threats in voicemails. In that case, too, he was charged with sending threats across state lines.

His defense attorney, Elizabeth Young, argued for leniency, stating that Shapiro was suffering from severe depression and alcohol use disorder at the time of the threats. She said he was remorseful and apologized to all CAIR staff, requesting the court to limit his sentence to six months following the Florida case.

Ultimately, the judge ordered an 18-month prison sentence to follow his current incarceration.

Federal documents revealed the content of some of Shapiro’s voicemails:

• On December 8, he laughed hysterically while saying, “I’m going to kill you bastards.”

• On December 14, he repeatedly shouted, “I’m going to kill you!”

• On December 15, he ranted, “You’re a violent people. Why do you come to America? Why do you come to Europe? You’re killers and rapists. I’m going to kill you.”

After receiving the first two messages, CAIR-Michigan officials contacted Canton police. Following the third message, Executive Director Dawud Walid instructed staff to work remotely through the new year for safety. The office’s landlord also upgraded security, installing new locks and electronic key-card entry systems.

Staff were initially unaware that the caller was located in another state and feared imminent violence, especially amid the rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate incidents following the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.

In the sentencing memo, prosecutors described Shapiro’s behavior as “part of a long pattern of threats” spanning more than a decade. Despite multiple encounters with law enforcement and prior convictions, Shapiro had shown no signs of stopping.

His known victims include a former presidential candidate, two U.S. congressional representatives and a Capitol Police officer. Although he had promised to stop making threats, he continued for nearly 10 years and only ended up in prison last year.

His attorney described him as a once-successful Jewish American lawyer in New York City, now disbarred, widowed and estranged from his children. She claimed that depression and alcohol abuse had clouded his judgment, and his actions were driven by emotional instability and divisive political discourse.

Quoting her client, she said, “I felt like my life was meaningless. I started drinking to feel something. I listened to the news and wanted my voice to be heard — so I started making phone calls.”

This case is another alarming example of hate-fueled threats targeting Muslim communities in the U.S., particularly during times of global conflict.