A thwarted mass shooting targeting a large Hindu temple in suburban Chicago was fueled by years of hateful rhetoric on social media against Hindus and Indians, community leaders say.
Authorities on Wednesday arrested Alexandros Paporakis, 19, who they said drove to the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, Illinois, on Sunday afternoon, armed with a rifle and body armor. Officials said he remained in the parking lot for several minutes, but left after his weapon jammed. Paporakis was arrested later that day near his home in Palatine, Illinois, after a co-worker at a Taco Bell alerted authorities to his plan to “kill Indian people.”
The temple, the largest in Aurora, was crowded Sunday with thousands observing the first day of Navaratri, a nine-night celebration of Shakti — the divine feminine energy believed to be foundational to all creation.
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U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents Illinois’ 8th congressional district, said he and his parents were inside the temple Sunday afternoon.
“Little did we know there was an attacker outside with sinister intent,” he said Thursday. “This has really shaken us.”
During a news conference Friday morning in Chicago, Krishnamoorthi stood with several other faith and civic leaders calling for the attempted mass shooting to be investigated as a hate crime. Speakers also called for an organized community response to prevent hate and extremism targeting all communities.
Hindus face online hate and real-world threats
Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Hindus of North America, said attacks against Hindus and Indians have been escalating in recent years. She said the racial slurs are increasingly visible online.
“You see vitriolic posts associating Indians with dirt and creating disgust about their appearance, food and cultural practices,” she said. “Sooner or later, all that online hate is going to migrate to the real world.”
Over the past two years, the rising wave of anti-Hindu hate has included a rash of vandalism and attacks across the country. Most recently, on Oct. 3, vandals hurled bricks at a Hindu temple in Richmond Heights, Ohio, shattering several windows while devotees were praying inside.
In June 2025, a gunman fired bullets into the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, causing thousands of dollars in damage. In Sugar Land, Texas, a 90-foot statue of the deity Hanuman, consecrated in 2024 at a temple complex, continues to draw disparaging comments, including one YouTube personality who recently urged its demolition.
In Frisco, Texas, where people of Indian origin make up about one-third of the population, speakers have used public comment periods during city council meetings to label the Indian community as “invaders,” characterize Hindu temples as a threat and accuse H-1B work visa holders of stealing American jobs or committing fraud.
Leaders call for resources to combat hate and extremism
Temple administrators in Aurora issued a statement Thursday assuring the community that they value the safety of devotees, employees and volunteers, and have implemented additional security measures including an “armed security presence.”
Krishnamoorthi said the temple, situated on 20 acres, is a cultural hub for the community in the Chicago area. It has been his family’s home away from home for about 40 years, he said.
“For people who were newly immigrated, this became their connection to the homeland,” Krishnamoorthi said.
The temple serves as a venue for concerts, dance performances, birthdays and weddings, and the cafeteria that serves South Indian cuisine is popular, he said.
Krishnamoorthi called for the FBI to prosecute this incident as a hate crime, and for social media companies to end the hateful rhetoric online.
“The FBI also needs to redirect resources to combat domestic violent extremism,” he said. “Election fraud and immigration are not the biggest threats facing our country.”
Joel Finkelstein with the New Jersey-based Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks cyber-social threats, said in 2025, anti-Indian content on X tripled in weekly volume. The administration’s changes in immigration policies, particularly relating to the H1-B visa, corresponded with measurable surges in racial slurs and deportation rhetoric targeting Indians, he said.
Amid the increase in online hate, Finkelstein said the South Asian community in the U.S., despite significant resources, lacks the ability to advocate for itself with strength and unity.
“There is nothing to stop it from getting worse,” he said.
Advocates say xenophobia has fueled hate
Sravya Tadepalli, executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, says her organization has formed strong coalitions with Muslim, Sikh and other organizations whose members also face hate.
“It’s important to understand that rhetoric is not just rhetoric,” she said. “It is harmful and can result in violence.”
Manjusha P. Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said her organization’s research showed that online slurs targeting South Asians rose 109% from 2023 to 2025. Statistics aside, Kulkarni said she was personally shaken by the threat in Illinois.
“It hits all of us who are temple goers,” she said. “Seeing how going to my house of worship can put me and my children at risk is very scary.”
AAPI Hate pointed to “xenophobic policies and rhetoric” that depict Indian people as a demographic threat - including Vice President JD Vance calling H1-B workers “indentured servants” and Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas’ Railroad Commission calling South Asian students at a Longhorns football game “a problem.” French’s post led to a flurry of other posts on social media calling for violence against Indian communities, including desecrating Hindu temples and statues.
Last month, a Sikh truck driver was stabbed in Wyoming, days after the Department of Homeland Security published a derogatory social media post about Sikh truck drivers.
Sikh temple shooting survivor stresses need for meaningful dialogue
Pardeep Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was one of six people killed in 2012 in a mass shooting at their gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin – the deadliest anti-Sikh attack in the U.S. The shooter, Wade Michael Page, was a self-proclaimed white supremacist.
After Paporakis’ arrest in Illinois, authorities said they recovered weapons, ammunition, a gas canister labeled with a slur referring to South Asians and several items depicting Nazi symbols. Officials said Paporakis wrote a manifesto in which he fantasized about mass murder and expressed his desire to kill as many non-white people as he could.
Kaleka, who co-wrote a book with a former white supremacist about his own journey of forgiveness after the Sikh temple shooting, said the young men who perpetrate these attacks don’t pop up suddenly.
“Most people who do this have lost hope, and their motivation is also to have you and society lose hope,” he said. “Their belief is if you can attack people in the space they hold most sacred, it plants a deep terror in communities.”
The solution is to have candid conversations across racial and religious boundaries so people can understand each other at a human level, Kaleka said. “Unless that happens, we’re more likely to see division rather than a collective spirit that joins us together.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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