Kieran Doyle on US domestic hate and terror incidents since the start of the Iran war

Keran Doyle, North America Research Manager said:

“Since the United States and Israel struck Iran on 28 February, at least 13 antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American attacks have been carried out across the United States and Canada. Few of these incidents have been explicitly connected to the war in Iran at present. Though authorities have warned of the threat of Iranian sleeper cells in North America,¹ sleeper cell-linked attacks have so far not taken place on the scale seen in Europe. 

The deadliest attack took place just a day after the initial strike, on 1 March, when a man wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag design and a hoodie with the text “Property of Allah,” shot indiscriminately at patrons at a beer garden in Austin, Texas, killing three people. Police killed the attacker, a naturalized US citizen of Senegalese origin.

On 12 March, a man rammed his truck through the entrance of a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, before engaging in a firefight with security guards. The attacker was later found dead from a gunshot wound – he was the only person killed in the attack. He was a naturalized US citizen of Lebanese origin who had recently lost four relatives due to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including a brother who the Israeli military claimed was a Hezbollah member. 

At least two Islamic State-linked incidents have also occurred since 28 February. Islamic State and the Iranian government are ideologically opposed, and there is no established connection between these attacks and the current conflict — the timing may be coincidental.

Between 2-10 March, at least three synagogues and a US Consulate were shot at in the Greater Toronto area. The early morning attacks left bullet holes in the buildings but caused no injuries. No perpetrators have been identified, and a link to the Iran strikes remains unconfirmed.

On 7 March, two people threw an ignited IED and a smoking projectile at anti-Islam demonstrators outside the New York governor's mansion, claiming the attack was carried out in the name of ISIS. The devices failed to explode and no one was injured.

On 12 March, a man opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one person and injuring two before being shot dead by Reserve Officers Training Corps members. The shooter, a former Army National Guard member on supervised release after a conviction for supporting the Islamic State, had connections to Islamic State West Africa Province in Nigeria and had previously attempted to join an Islamic State group in Libya.

Several hate crimes with lower levels of violence have also been reported since the start of the conflict, though none have been linked to the war. 

On 3 March, a man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted on the N train in Brooklyn, New York – he claimed his assailant made antisemitic comments and stole the yarmulke. 

On 8 March, a 17-year-old shot a visibly religious man with a gel pellet gun in Teaneck, New Jersey, after asking whether he supported Israel or Palestine. The same day, two Israeli-Americans were assaulted by a group of three men in San Jose, California.

On 28 March, a man entered the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, where he yelled antisemitic slurs and punched a resident.”