Anti-Muslim bigotry in the US has continued to rise through 2026, following the pattern set the year before, and the environment it has produced is harsher now than at any point in the recent past. Much of that climate has been built deliberately rather than arising from events on its own. In April 2026, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) documented how 89 elected officials assembled a coordinated anti-Muslim campaign over thirteen months, publishing 1,111 social media posts, introducing eight bills, and forming a Sharia-Free America Caucus that grew to 65 members.
These campaigns draw on conspiracy theories about Muslim religious practices, mosques, and the supposed imposition of “Sharia law,” all reinforcing a broader narrative of an impending Muslim takeover. This narrative echoes the Great Replacement theory and intensifies around major events, including conflicts in the Middle East and the growing visibility of Muslims running for public office.
Online, that bigotry and the conspiratorial narratives carrying it have escalated in successive waves. Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on August 4 produced the most concentrated wave of the summer. In the seven days that followed, posts targeting El-Sayed with anti-Muslim bigotry rose to 20 times their pre-primary rate, while overall anti-Muslim posts on X reached their highest single-day total since June 1. This data brief examines the scale of both surges and the rhetoric driving them.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) analyzed 38,280 Islamophobic posts naming Abdul El-Sayed, published between January 1 and August 10, 2026 across X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky.
Measured against the June 1- August 3 baseline of 155 posts per day, the post-primary week represents a 20-fold increase. Measured against the January-May daily rate of 44 posts, it is 70 times higher. Volume peaked on August 5 at 6,923 posts in a single day, the day Stevens conceded and the result was widely reported.
Figure 1. Average Daily Volume of Islamophobic Posts Targeting Abdul El-Sayed (June 1-August 10, 2026)
Platforms: X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky
Figure 2. Average Daily Volume of Islamophobic Posts Targeting Abdul El-Sayed (August 1-10, 2026)
The content is organized around a small number of recurring anti-Muslim tropes and conspiracy theories, applied to him because of his religious identity:
These themes are not new. CSOH observed a closely similar pattern during New York City’s Democratic mayoral elections last year , when Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy drew the same combination of terrorism allegations, Sharia-takeover claims, dual-loyalty framing and accusations of communism. The repetition across two contests a year apart, in different cities and at different levels of office, points to a stable repertoire that activates whenever a Muslim candidate becomes competitive or wins office.
Separately, CSOH tracked 409,640 posts promoting anti-Muslim bigotry and harmful conspiracy theories on X in the US between June 1 and August 10.
Figure 3. Posts promoting anti-Muslim bigotry on X (June 1-August 10, 2026)
On August 5, following El-Sayed’s primary victory, volume reached its highest single-day level of the summer and exceeded 10,000 posts for the first time.
The content of this wider dataset follows the same conspiratorial architecture as the anti-Muslim hate targeting El-Sayed. Its central claim is that the US is being “invaded” and progressively Islamized, with “Sharia law” portrayed as an instrument of this alleged takeover. Within this narrative, users call for Muslims to be deported, Muslims and Islam to be banned, and for “remigration” to be adopted as the only remedy to the purported invasion.
Based on the evidence from this primary, last year’s New York mayoral election, and the persistently elevated level of anti-Muslim hate, these patterns of bigotry and conspiracy are likely to intensify as the 2026 midterm election campaign progresses.
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