On Monday’s PBS News Hour, Fred de Sam Lazaro reported from the Twin Cities on what co-anchor Amna Nawaz solemnly described in her introduction as “a surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric and xenophobia in political ads and speeches” as the midterms loom, as part of the program’s occasional “Race Matters” series.
Amna Nawaz: ….Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro brings us a report on some of the targets of that language and the impact it's having….
Imam Abdulahi Farah, Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center: People are choosing tribalism over humanity. Immigrants are blamed. Muslims are blamed. Black and brown communities are blamed.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: During a recent prayer service at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center outside Minneapolis, Imam Abdulahi Farah had a pointed message, both for politicians and his own community....
Even while admitting inconvenient facts about the Somali community in Minnesota, the reporter can't seem to treat the community as other than passive, possibly innocent participants. Meanwhile, cynical Republicans pounce!
de Sam Lazaro: Minnesota's Somali population has been in the national spotlight since last year amid a series of massive fraud scandals. But the community is now again under intense scrutiny over a rash of gun violence that authorities blamed on gangs of young Somali men. Minnesota Republicans seized on the events.
After lamenting Trump having "singled out Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar" for Justice Department investigation, PBS played defense once again for Michigan's radical Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
PBS News Hour's Fred de Sam Lazaro defends El-Sayed: "But this election cycle, the president and his allies have widened their attacks on Muslim candidates...In particular, Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, linking him without evidence to extremist groups." https://t.co/6OhMZU2QDx
— Clay Waters 🇮🇱 (@claywaters44) November 3, 2026
de Sam Lazaro: But this election cycle, the president and his allies have widened their attacks on Muslim candidates.
Campaign ad narrator: Abdul raises money from dangerous people who finance terrorist networks. And his family has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida.
de Sam Lazaro: In particular, Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, linking him without evidence to extremist groups.
“Without evidence”? PBS is arrogantly ignoring ample evidence linking El-Sayed to extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, controversies covered ably by the Washington Free Beacon, doing the job the elitist media won’t.
Instead, de Sam Lazaro slammed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for statements at a rally for Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), locked in a battle with El-Sayed.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: There's 500 million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Field Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature.
de Sam Lazaro left out the speech's initial praise for Islam before the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, as noted even in a hostile New York Times story (“RFK Jr. Makes Bigoted Remarks About Arabs on the Campaign Trail in Michigan”).
There was a little jolt of reality involving a police chief battling armed Somali gangs, one who nonetheless gave PBS the quote it wanted: “A lot of this outside rhetoric, unfortunately, is political and is not helping.”
de Sam Lazaro soon returned to his main point, Muslim fear.
de Sam Lazaro: But at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque, which is in Bloomington and was the site of a bombing by an anti-government militia group in 2017, some community members said they felt targeted, especially by the president's comments.
He asked one Minnesotan, “Are you afraid for your security?” And she responded the way PBS wished.
Amina Adan, Somali Minnesotan: Yes, for sure. I am afraid. I'm a mother of four daughters. Being a woman and outwardly being Muslim, I'm wearing my hijab and I'm already portraying my faith in my community….
de Sam Lazaro: Fear that could linger across Minnesota, even as the heated election messaging comes to a close.
Speaking of religious-based "fear," how would someone wearing a Star of David feel in Dearborn, Michigan, or any synagogue in the state? Don't expect PBS to ask that question.
Naturally, Amina Adan was just a "Somali Minnesotan," and not described as a leftist community organizer and political strategist. You can find her answering the question "Why Was Minnesota’s Resistance to ICE the Strongest Yet?" That would explain why Fred would come calling from PBS.
The story ended on a graphic spelling out a statistic from the discredited Israel-haters at the Muslim pressure group CAIR. “Over 8,600 anti-Muslim discrimination complaints were reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in 2025 – the most reports since 1996.” (Those are self-reported incidents, which aren’t nearly as reliable as police records.)
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS News Hour
11/2/26
7:38:22 p.m.
Amna Nawaz: In the run-up to tomorrow's midterm elections, experts have documented a surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric and xenophobia in political ads and speeches.
Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro brings us a report on some of the targets of that language and the impact it's having. It's part of our series Race Matters.
Imam Abdulahi Farah, Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center: People are choosing tribalism over humanity. Immigrants are blamed. Muslims are blamed. Black and brown communities are blamed.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: During a recent prayer service at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque Islamic Center outside Minneapolis, Imam Abdulahi Farah had a pointed message, both for politicians and his own community.
Imam Abdulahi Farah: Whether it's oppression, whether it's hate, whether it's injustice, whether it's done by someone you know or someone from outside, you have to take action.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Minnesota's Somali population has been in the national spotlight since last year amid a series of massive fraud scandals.
Man: Evacuated because of a shooting.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: But the community is now again under intense scrutiny over a rash of gun violence that authorities blamed on gangs of young Somali men. Minnesota Republicans seized on the events.
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN): These criminal gangsters, which I would argue are enemy combatants more than anything, they're not holding them accountable.
Lisa Demuth (R), Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate: This is not who we are. We need safe communities, not Somali gang shoot-outs like the one that happened here.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: So did President Trump, who said Minnesota is being -- quote -- "taken over by Somali immigrants" and the state needed to fight back.
The president has also singled out Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
President Donald Trump: I think she's a sick, a very dishonest person, but -- who hates our country. And she comes from a country that is essentially not even a country, Somalia. It's real shithouse, OK?
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Federal investigators raided Omar's home last month as part of an investigation into whether she or family members committed immigration fraud. Omar has denied any wrongdoing.
President Donald Trump: We can't let radical left jihadists...
Fred de Sam Lazaro: But this election cycle, the president and his allies have widened their attacks on Muslim candidates.
Narrator: Abdul raises money from dangerous people who finance terrorist networks. And his family has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: In particular, Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, linking him without evidence to extremist groups.
President Donald Trump: We don't want to have a jihadist. We're going to have to get a special medal detector for Abdul.
Vice President J.D. Vance: We have to understand what happens when our nation gives in to these kinds of people, to young men with zero attachment to its land or to its history.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: The rhetoric, though, has gone well beyond El-Sayed himself. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a campaign event for El-Sayed's opponent, former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: There's 500 million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Field Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature
Fred de Sam Lazaro: In fact, Arabs have won all of those awards.
Anti-Muslim sentiment was also widespread at the Republican Midterm Convention in September.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Islamism, likewise, produces murder and oppression. Sharia law has no place in America.
(CHEERING)
Sara Tabor, Republican Voter: Islam doesn't have the same principles and values that we do as Christians.
Lisa Holomshek, Republican Voter: All the mosques that are being built, it's out of control.
Saher Selod: The rhetoric certainly is something that I haven't seen since 9/11.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Saher Selod is the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a think tank focused on America's Muslim community.
Selod has tracked Islamophobia in U.S. politics.
Saher Selod: I have never seen the level of anti-Muslim political ads that we're seeing during this campaign cycle. The fact that it was already somehow acceptable to run on this type of racism and animus means that it's trending to a certain extent within the general population. If it was so unpopular, then they wouldn't -- they wouldn't feel like that this would be a successful strategy.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Back in Minnesota, officials are trying to navigate the political realities of the moment while searching for real solutions.
Booker Hodges, Bloomington, Minnesota, Police Chief: A lot of this outside rhetoric, unfortunately, is political, and it's not helping.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Booker Hodges is police chief in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.
(GUNFIRE)
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Last month, suspects fired over 100 rounds on a residential street in the city, a shooting Hodges linked to Somali gangs.
Booker Hodges: I know that it's not the entire community that's doing this, but we do ourselves a disservice if we don't call it what it is. We get caught up in the name and as opposed to dealing with the issue. And I think now we got to deal with the issue, and right now it's just Somali-American gangs that we're dealing with.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: But at the Dar Al-Farooq Mosque, which is in Bloomington and was the site of a bombing by an anti-government militia group in 2017, some community members said they felt targeted, especially by the president's comments.
Mural Tifow, Somali Minnesotan: I do respect the president. He is my president, and I would love for the president to respect me as well as a voter, as a citizen. But that is not coming from this White House, and I feel threatened.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Are you afraid for your security?
Amina Adan, Somali Minnesotan: Yes, for sure. I am afraid. I'm a mother of four daughters. Being a woman and outwardly being Muslim, I'm wearing my hijab and I'm already portraying my faith in my community. So, yes, I am very much afraid.
Fred de Sam Lazaro: Fear that could linger across Minnesota, even as the heated election messaging comes to a close.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in the Twin Cities.
Amna Nawaz: And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at Santa Clara University.
