The Utah Muslim Civic League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s filing of formal felony attempted murder charges against Peter Michael Larsen, the domestic terrorist accused of stabbing a Muslim man at a mall in Utah fifteen times, and the confirmation that the attack was motivated by anti-Muslim hate.
In a press conference today, the Salt Lake County District Sam Gill detailed Larsen’s attack on a Muslim manning a kiosk at a mall earlier this week. According to Gill, Larsen approached the victim, asked where he was from, and then asked if he was a Muslim. When the man said that he was a Muslim, Larsen began stabbing him repeatedly. Bystanders, including a friend of the victim, attempted to stop him but were unable to immediately do so.
According to Gill, Larsen later admitted to law enforcement that he had committed the crime, that he knew the victim was a Muslim from a prior interaction, and that he deliberately set out planning to kill Muslims at the mall to inspire others to violently expel American Muslims from their own country.
CAIR today announced that it has identified several social media posts on a page using the same name as Larsen that expressed extreme hostility towards Muslims and various other far-right views.
SEE: Suspect intended to kill Valley Fair Mall employee because he was Muslim, documents show
In a statement, CAIR and the Utah Muslim Civic League said:
“We welcome the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s filing of formal felony charges against Peter Michael Larsen and the announcement of plans to pursue hate crime enhancements. These important steps signal that the state is taking this crime seriously and that violent hate against American Muslims has no place in Utah.
“According to District Attorney Gill, the suspect openly admitted to law enforcement that he attacked the victim because of his Muslim identity and wanted to spark more violence against American Muslims, who he viewed as an ‘infestation’ of people planning to take over the country. This hateful, deranged rhetoric is no different than the language we have heard from many elected officials, including members of the anti-Muslim hate caucus. Hate speech can very easily lead to hate crimes.
“It is long past time for our political leaders to recognize that anti-Muslim bigotry is just as dangerous and unacceptable as other forms of hate. We stand in solidarity with the victim of this hate crime, his family and the broader Utah Muslim community.”
CAIR has repeatedly condemned anti-Muslim rhetoric by public officials and has tied that spike in hate to growing acts of violence targeting American Muslims, like the recent deadly terror attack on a San Diego mosque.
In recent weeks, CAIR chapters nationwide have responded to a disturbing series of anti-Muslim hate incidents.
CAIR’s New York chapter (CAIR-NY) recently welcomed the arrest and federal charges against a suspect accused of carrying out a series of allegedly hate-motivated firebombing attacks.
CAIR-NY also joined a call for members of the public to provide any information that may assist law enforcement in identifying the individual responsible for a series of anti-Islamic graffiti incidents in Brooklyn and called for a hate crime investigation into a violent threat targeting the Sunnyside Muslim Center.
Earlier this month, CAIR’s Pittsburgh chapter welcomed the federal indictment of a Pennsylvania man who allegedly identified himself as a Nazi and made threats to carry out a mass shooting targeting Muslims, Democrats, Jewish people, African Americans, and other minority groups.
CAIR’s Philadelphia chapter also offered a reward for information on an arson attack on a mosque.
Washington, D.C. based CAIR’s latest civil rights report documented 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints in 2025 – the highest number ever recorded by the organization since it began publishing civil rights reports in 1996.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; Liban Mohamed, Director of the Utah Muslim Civic League, [email protected], (801) 648-0225