Michigan Synagogue Attack

A Lebanese-born man who had learned a week earlier that four of his family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in his native country, waited in his car outside a Detroit-area synagogue for two hours before ramming into the building. Authorities say 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali crashed into Temple Israel Thursday, got his vehicle stuck in a hallway and started firing his gun through the windshield. The FBI says he fatally shot himself. Ghazali was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016. An official in Lebanon told The Associated Press that an Israeli airstrike killed Ghazali’s two brothers and a niece and nephew at their home on March 5.

Three acts of ideologically inspired violence in the past week in the United States have laid bare the heightened terrorism threat unfolding against the backdrop of the war with Iran. And they've also put a focus on a counterterrorism system strained by the widespread departures of experienced national security professionals at the FBI and Justice Department. Those firings and resignations, coupled with the diversion of resources over the last year to meet other Trump administration priorities, have increased concerns about the capability to head off a potential surge in threats.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric is on the rise among some Republican lawmakers. Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles wrote that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville compared Muslims to the “enemy inside the gates.” The derogatory language comes against the backdrop of the Iran war and drew sharp condemnation from Democrats. Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, called Tuberville’s post “mindless hate.” For many Muslims, it’s a political moment that carries echoes from the early 2000s, when the 9/11 attacks and the global conflicts that they helped spawn generated hostility toward Muslim communities in the United States.