(RNS) — Since the United States and Israel first attacked Iran over a month ago, federal law enforcement visits to Shiite Muslims living in the U.S. have increased, as have hate incidents targeting them online and in person, according to lawyers in California and New Jersey. 

Muslim advocates who track hate incidents and legal cases say comments from the Trump administration about the Iran war have put a target on Muslim Americans, and especially Shiite communities as Iran is a majority-Shiite country. 

In Los Angeles, several Iranian or Shiite Muslims have been visited by the FBI in the last month, said Dina Chehata, the civil rights managing attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles chapter. She said the spike in visits aligns with the start of the Iran war and is consistent with what she described as a pattern of reactive crackdowns on diaspora Muslim communities whenever there is a geopolitical flashpoint. 

Chehata said none of the visits led to charges or arrests, which she argued suggests the FBI is not investigating people based on credible evidence of criminal conduct. 

“They are investigating certain people because of their protected identity, because they are Muslim or Arab or Palestinian, or now Iranian or Lebanese or Shia, which is so dangerous — and that’s always been the problem that American Muslims have had with our federal government,” Chehata said. 

Chehata said she believes the goal of these visits is to “map out the community” and investigate who has ties to the Iranian government or its proxy group, Hezbollah. CAIR-LA lawyers are representing some of the individuals who were visited by agents, she said. 

Several American Shiite Muslims were also visited by FBI agents at their homes in New Jersey, said attorney Mohammad Ali Naquvi, the founder and advocacy director of Husayn Center for Social Justice, a Muslim social services center in Trenton.

The American Muslim Bar Association, of which he is a board member, has received reports of agents attempting to question people about their family members in Iran or alleged connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Naquvi said the uptick in FBI visits is unusual but not surprising because the government has long viewed Muslim Americans as suspicious. 

Public affairs officers for the FBI’s LA and Newark offices did not respond to requests for comment.

Mosques are also on high alert after congregations in Michigan, Virginia and Houston that held traditional mourning ceremonies after the killing of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were also reportedly visited by law enforcement officers, Naquvi said. He called the FBI’s attempts a “fishing exhibition” and said the federal government is wrong to cast suspicion on all Shiite Americans by associating them to the Iranian regime.

“The Muslim community and the Shia Muslim community is very diverse in its thinking, in its faith and in its politics,” said Naquvi, who is Shiite. 

Meanwhile, the regional CAIR-LA office has seen a 50% uptick in hate-related incident reports since the start of the Iran war, Chehata said. And online, discriminatory content targeting Muslims across social media platforms has escalated “at an alarming pace,” according to an analysis by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Between Feb. 28 and March 5, a total of 25,348 Islamophobic posts were recorded on X, the group said, which included themes of dehumanization, incitement and exclusionary rhetoric about Muslims. The analysis showed that there was a “sharp spike” of such posts on the first day of the war.

While some American politicians have long embraced Islamophobic messaging, Naquvi said political rhetoric about the war from senior Trump administration officials has put a new target on Shiite Muslim Americans specifically. 

Prior to the temporary ceasefire announced Tuesday (April 7), the U.S. was invoking religion in its war against a country led by Shiite Muslim clerics, with some Trump officials appearing to cast military action as a divine mission. Implicit in their comments is a dehumanization of Iranians and Shiite Muslims, Naquvi said. 

“This lexicon is becoming more anti-Shia versus anti-Muslim,” Naquvi said. “And that translates to more micro targeting.”

The focus on Shiite Muslims and Iranian leaders as enemies from Republican officials appeals to Christian nationalists and “makes the American public feel like there is an existential religious Messianism that is guiding all this,” he added. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example, said in an early March press conference that “Crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamic delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio used similar rhetoric to justify attacking Iran, saying last month on X, “Iran is run by lunatics — religious fanatic lunatics.”

In a statement condemning Hegseth’s comment about “prophetic Islamic delusions,” CAIR said it was “an apparent reference to Shia beliefs about religious figures arising near the end times.” 

Muslim community leaders have long warned that Islamophobic political rhetoric can make Muslims in the U.S. more vulnerable to attacks. And with an increased focus now on Shiite Americans, more Shiite mosques are hosting “Know Your Rights” trainings for their congregants. 

In California, the Shia Muslim Council of Southern California and the National Iranian American Council’s LA chapter have held an online workshop on how to interact with law enforcement and “stay prepared in the current political climate.” Over a dozen mosques serve Shiite Muslims in Southern California and a significant number of Iranian Americans. 

Chehata, who presented at the online workshop, said some in the community were scared for their loved ones in Lebanon and Iran, while fearful about their own safety in the U.S.

“People are looking to scapegoat anyone that comes from the Iranian American community, and there’s a lot of misinformation,” she said. “And it doesn’t help that we have a very unhinged administration who’s stoking the fires of hatred and division amongst Americans. So it is a really dangerous situation.”