Muslim Hate Crimes: Hawaii Mosque Receives Threatening Messages Amid New Trump Travel Ban

Multiple hate-filled social media posts, emails and voicemail messages were directed towards members of the Oahu mosque in Hawaii amid the creation of a second travel ban, Hakim Ouansafi, the president of the Muslim association of Hawaii announced Tuesday.

“Killing Muslims is God’s will! You beasts will pay!” a man can reportedly be heard screaming in one of the voicemail messages.

The hate messages began Monday when President Donald Trump signed a second executive order barring citizens from six Muslim countries from entering the U.S. The Trump administration has maintained that the revised travel restrictions on people from Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for a period of 90 days was created on the grounds of national security. The new executive order kept in place a ban on all refugees from entering the country for 120 days.

Ouansafi said the travel ban directly resulted in the hateful messages towards Muslims, citing one written message the Hawaii Association received.

"Now we have a president who knows that you guys are evil," Ouansafi read aloud, "and we're going to exterminate you."

These hate messages haven't all been left on social media or via voicemails. One mosque member, Zakaria Khairane, told local reporters that his 13-year-old-daughter, who wears a hijab, was recently threatened by a man on a public bus.

"When they got off the bus, the gentleman followed them with obscene gestures and verbal abusive language, which my daughter wouldn't even dare to share with me," Khairane said.

Hawaii was the first state to take legal action against the revised travel ban, with state attorneys filing a 40-page request to a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order blocking its implementation Tuesday. State attorneys asked for the temporary restraining order to begin on March 15, a day before Trump's executive order is supposed to take effect.

"This new executive order is nothing more than Muslim Ban 2.0," Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement Monday. "Under the pretense of national security, it still targets immigrants and refugees."

Roughly 3.3 million Muslims who lived in the U.S. in 2015. The number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the country increased from 24 in 2015 to 101 in 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported Feb. 15, 2017.