The war in the Middle East is , including Iran and Lebanon. The conflict has already targeted the , , and .
Some Muslim could experience backlash. They say in the U.S. may face increased hostility as the war intensifies.
, a board member at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn, Michigan, said that the community center and mosque is heightening security because of the war.
“We get threatening calls all the time, especially when things like that happen in the Middle East,” he recently told WXYZ, a local ABC News affiliate. “And we’re anticipating that.”
The risk of violence is likely furthered by some national political leaders spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric. On March 9, 2026, Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, , “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, also recently wrote on X that the choice between dogs and Muslims is .
Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab before the airstrikes on Iran by the U.S. and Israel.
Iran is not an Arab country. Most of its population is Persian and . Still, some people may conflate Iran and Iranian Americans with Arab countries.
In 2025, 63% of Muslims in the U.S. said they , according to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a research organization that focuses on Muslim Americans. That percentage was , a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, reported in 2024 as the highest number of discrimination complaints received since it began recording.
This would not be the first time a conflict involving Muslim-majority countries led to increased discrimination against Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S.
Muslim and Arab student experiences in American public schools. shows that global conflicts in the Middle East tend to , meaning hatred and fear of Muslim people, in the U.S.
A ‘war on terror’ reaches students
Days after the , declared a “,” primarily targeting al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In 2002, Bush helped establish the , a new federal agency to prevent terrorism. As part of this work, the department began monitoring , disproportionately monitoring Muslims.
Public attitudes also shifted quickly after the attacks. A conducted three days after Sept. 11 found that 3 out of 10 Americans had heard negative comments about Arabs since al-Qaida’s attack. More than half of those surveyed supported increased security measures aimed at Arab Americans.
Nine weeks after Sept. 11, the , an organization that advocates for Muslim and Arab Americans, reported an unprecedented number of anti-Arab discriminatory incidents, including cases involving students at schools.
In 2002, the FBI showing an increase in racial and religious hate incidents. The report did not specifically break down findings about particular religious or ethnic groups.
According to NPR, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program statistics on Muslims and Arabs from 1992 through 2015.
A 2007 of Muslim American youth was among the that and bullying toward Muslim students.
A fixed trend
This pattern of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination has continued since then.
In her 2016 book, “,” scholar explored how California students who were from communities targeted by the war organized to promote human and civil rights. They wanted to challenge stereotypes they often heard about Muslims and Arabs being violent and prone to terrorism.
In 2020, reported that their children experienced religious-based bullying at school, in the form of insults or physical assaults.
In 2021, lingering effects of 9/11 backlash. Students continued to describe facing discrimination at school, which resulted in anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
My own research from 2021 found that Muslim and Arab students tended to experience a spike in hate and bigotry , when some educators and students conflated terrorism with Islam and Muslims.
Students I spoke with described being called terrorists and other Muslim and Arab tropes.
These findings likely only capture part of the problem, because anti-Muslim and anti-Arab .
After Hamas’ on Israel and in the Gaza Strip, Arab and Muslim students in the U.S. in , according to Vision of Humanity, a project of the think tank Institute for Economics & Peace. In November 2023, three Palestinian students were .
What teachers can do
The current, rapidly shifting war in the Middle East is from the war on terror. For starters, the U.S. in the early 2000s mainly fought against terrorist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, not a sovereign country like Iran.
But some elements are similar – including the fact that both wars have involved countries with majority .
It is not easy for educators to anticipate how this conflict may impact Muslim and Arab students.
But the war on terror offers some lessons that may help educators protect students and minimize anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate.
My research when they teach inaccurate narratives of international conflicts. Students can feel , and even targeted, if lessons replicate stereotypes. Teaching current events during times of war . In many cases, teachers do not have up-to-date curriculum materials that they can use. But I still think it is necessary.
Some recommend teaching media literacy, including people’s . Teachers could also help students learn about how to find reliable media sources to understand complex issues like U.S. foreign policy.
Next, I think classrooms environments for students impacted by war. Muslim and Arab students with deep emotional and cultural ties to the Middle East could , even if they are not physically close to the war.
A 2025 Muslim community poll by the nonprofit research group found that educators and teachers are responsible for of anti-Muslim bullying, which could reflect their own biases.
But educators remain the best line of defense against anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bullying.
Teaching and that prohibit discrimination can help build safe and for Muslim and Arab students.
It is not clear what the future will bring to the Middle East, or to Muslim and Arab people in the U.S. But these lessons might help make schools and classrooms safer for Muslim and Arab students.
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