In November, someone attacked the sign in front of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) in Redmond. Officials repaired the sign. But then, less than a month later, it was vandalized again. MAPS’ response: increase security and invite the perpetrator to come meet the people who attend the mosque.

“Knowing a Muslim co-citizen is the best first step to eradicating Islamophobia,” MAPS treasurer Riad Chummun wrote in an Inauguration Day op-ed in the Redmond Reporter.

MAPS’ mosque serves 5,000 families in the region and offers other services for Muslims across Puget Sound, including food banks, career programs, refugee assistance, health clinics, and funeral services. The organization helps 1,000 families a year, ac-cording to Chummun, offering community in a time when anti-Muslim sentiments are reaching a new fever pitch.

Donald Trump has not only reinvigorated anti-Muslim sentiments but proposed banning immigration from certain countries and forcing Muslims to register. Trump and his circle have waffled on these claims, but they have not completely walked away from them. And that uncertainty breeds anxiety that makes MAPS role more important than ever.

“The idea of a registry,” Chummun told the Redmond Reporter the day before Trump’s inauguration, “has already created a scar that runs deep.”

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