WASHINGTON, DC — October 16, 2026 — Equality Labs condemns the alleged white supremacist plot to carry out a mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois. The reported targeting of South Asian people at a place of worship is a chilling reminder that violence driven by white nationalism threatens South Asian communities across faiths, castes, and backgrounds and is a direct attack on our constitutionally protected rights to religious freedom, freedom of assembly, and freedom from discrimination. These fundamental human rights violations undermine our democracy.
Authorities say the 19-year-old suspect drove to the temple with a rifle and body armor, but the weapon jammed. He was arrested after a coworker alerted police. A manifesto attributed to him reportedly called for a “mass shooting of Indian people.
This thwarted attack comes amid two years of anti-South Asian rhetoric, as right-wing nationalists and political figures have helped normalize hostility toward South Asians in Republican political messaging. A report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States, published Sunday, September 27, 2026, found that the monthly volume of anti-South Asian hate on X rose by 240 percent between January 2024 and June 2026—from 12,904 posts to 43,843. While research from Stop AAPI Hate states that 71% of anti-Asian threats of violence online targeted South Asians. This has only gotten worse since President Trump took office, and launched his racist, anti-immigrant agenda emboldening people to commit hate and violence against Asian communities.
The irresponsible pandering to white nationalists and the use of South Asians as racial and immigration scapegoats has helped fuel this climate of hate. Just last month, CNN reported a Sikh truck driver was stabbed in Wyoming, days after the Department of Homeland Security posted a racist image of a Sikh truck driver online. This foiled shooting also comes five months after the deadly assault on the Islamic Center of San Diego reported by ABC7 News when two teenage gunmen who cited the Christchurch mosque massacre as inspiration killed three people at the San Diego mosque. Together, these incidents underscore the urgent need to confront the networks and rhetoric that fuel violence against communities of color. That response must also recognize the distinct harms faced by Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi, and other caste-oppressed people who face the race and faith based attacks on our religious freedom alongside our experiences of caste discrimination.
“People should be able to gather, worship, practice their culture and live without fear of being targeted for who they are,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Executive Director of Equality Labs. “We stand with the South Asian community in Aurora and with all religious communities threatened by white supremacist violence. Building real solidarity means confronting racism, religious violence, and caste discrimination while refusing to blame entire communities for the actions of individuals.”
Equality Labs urges prosecutors to pursue all applicable hate-crime charges, federal agencies to investigate the online networks that radicalize attackers, social media companies and AI platforms to have stronger protections against racist, castesist, and religious hate speech, and for Congress to expand security funding for houses of worship and other community spaces.
Equality Labs also calls on elected officials across the political spectrum to reject religious hate speech, anti-Indian, anti-South Asian, and casteist rhetoric. No community should be stigmatized or held collectively responsible because of its religion, caste, ethnicity, or national origin.
Finally, we call for unity across the South Asian community at a time of escalating violence. This is a moment to build collective power, recommit to progressive principles and the rule of law, and work toward healing from all systems of domination—from white supremacy, patriarchy, and caste.
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About Equality Labs:
Equality Labs is a South Asian power-building organization that uses healing justice, faith based organizing, community research, political base-building, culture-shifting art, advocacy and digital security to end caste discrimination, religious intolerance, and gender based violence.