On Saturday, September 17, ten unsuspecting shoppers entered the Crossroads Center shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota anticipating a relaxing evening filled with Cinnabon, Orange Juliuses and Wetzel’s Pretzels, but they quickly found themselves the victims of the vicious stabbing spree of twenty-two year old Dahir A. Adan. After several minutes of initial chaos, Adan was shot and killed by off-duty police officer Jason Falconer, thus preventing further casualties. Fortunately, all ten of the injured shoppers were were promptly treated by emergency services, made full recoveries, and were released from the hospital within a day.

Authorities have been hesitant to officially deem this tragedy an act of terrorism. During the rampage, Adan, a Muslim Somali-American, reportedly made references to Allah and asked at least one of the victims if he was Muslim. Since then, an ISIS-linked news agency has claimed Adan’s actions as those of a “soldier of the Islamic State.” Fearing an islamophobic and xenophobic backlash, leaders of the St. Cloud Somali and Muslim communities held a news conference the following day, during which they expressed their grief for the victims and called for unity between all Americans. Speaking on the stabbing, Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council of American-Muslim Relationships’ Minnesota chapter, explained, “We understand in St. Cloud there [are] more anti-Muslim[s] organizing, and we hope they do not use this incident to divide … our community.” Within 24 hours of the events in Minnesota, Ahmad Khan Rahami carried out a series of bombings in New York City, continuing the troubling trend of individual assailants launching makeshift but nonetheless dangerous attacks throughout the United States and around the world.