A foiled mass shooting targeting a large Hindu temple in suburban Chicago was fueled by years of hate speech on social media against Hindus and Indians, community leaders say.
WATCH: The role of social media in fueling extremism and disinformation in a divided political climate
Authorities on Wednesday arrested Alexandros Paporakis, 19, who they say drove to the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, Illinois, on Sunday afternoon, armed with a rifle and a bulletproof vest. Authorities said he remained in the parking lot for several minutes, but left after his gun 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 Indians.”
The temple, Aurora’s largest, was packed Sunday with thousands of people observing the first day of Navaratri, a nine-night celebration of Shakti — the divine feminine energy considered fundamental to all creation.
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, said he and his parents were inside the temple Sunday afternoon.
“We didn’t know there was an attacker outside with sinister intentions,” he said Thursday. “It really shook us.”
At a news conference Friday morning in Chicago, Krishnamoorthi stood alongside several other religious and civic leaders to call for the attempted mass shooting to be investigated as a hate crime. Speakers also called for an organized community response to prevent hatred and extremism from targeting all communities.
Hindus face online hatred and real threats
Pushpita Prasad, a spokeswoman for the Coalition of Hindus of North America, said attacks on Hindus and Indians have intensified in recent years. She said racist slurs are increasingly visible online.
“You see vitriolic messages associating Indians with dirt and creating disgust about their appearance, their diet and their cultural practices,” she said. “Sooner or later, all this online hate is going to migrate to the real world.”
Over the past two years, the growing wave of anti-Hindu hatred has been accompanied by a wave of vandalism and attacks across the country. Most recently, on October 3, vandals threw bricks at a Hindu temple in Richmond Heights, Ohio, breaking several windows as worshipers prayed inside.
In June 2025, a gunman fired bullets at 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, enshrined in 2024 at a temple complex, continues to draw disparaging comments, including a YouTube personality who recently called for its demolition.
In Frisco, Texas, where people of Indian descent make up about a third of the population, speakers used public comment periods at city council meetings to call the Indian community “invaders,” call Hindu temples a menace, and accuse H-1B work visa holders of stealing U.S. jobs or committing fraud.
Leaders call for resources to fight hate and extremism
Aurora Temple administrators released a statement Thursday assuring the community that they value the safety of worshipers, employees and volunteers, and have implemented additional security measures, including an “armed security presence.”
Krishnamoorthi said the temple, located on 20 acres, is a cultural center for the Chicago area community. It’s been his family’s home away from home for about 40 years, he said.
“For newly immigrated people, this has become their connection to their homeland,” Krishnamoorthi said.
The temple serves as a venue for concerts, dance performances, birthday parties and weddings, and the cafeteria that serves South Indian cuisine is popular, he said.
Krishnamoorthi called on the FBI to prosecute the incident as a hate crime, and on social media companies to stop hateful rhetoric online.
“The FBI must also redirect its resources to combat domestic violent extremism,” he said. “Voter fraud and immigration are not the biggest threats facing our country.”
Joel Finkelstein of the New Jersey-based Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks cybersocial threats, said that by 2025, anti-Indian content on X had tripled in weekly volume. The administration’s changes to immigration policies, particularly regarding the H1-B visa, correspond with a measurable increase in racial slurs and deportation rhetoric targeting Indians, he said.
In the face of increasing online hate, Finkelstein said the South Asian community in the United States, despite having significant resources, does not have the capacity to fight back with strength and unity.
“Nothing will stop the situation from getting worse,” he said.
Defenders say xenophobia fueled hatred
Sravaya 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 isn’t just rhetoric,” she said. “It is harmful and can lead to violence.”
Manjusha P. Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said her organization’s research showed that online slurs targeting South Asians increased 109% between 2023 and 2025. Statistics aside, Kulkarni said she was personally shaken by the threat in Illinois.
“It hits all of us who go to the temple,” she said. “To see how going to my place of worship can put my children and me in danger is very frightening.”
AAPI Hate highlighted “xenophobic policies and rhetoric” that paint Indians as a demographic threat — including Vice President JD Vance who called H1-B workers “indentured servants” and Bo French, the Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, who called South Asian students at a Longhorns football game a “problem.” French’s post sparked a series of other social media posts calling for violence against Indian communities, including the desecration of Hindu temples and statues.
Last month, a Sikh truck driver was stabbed in Wyoming, days after the Department of Homeland Security posted a derogatory social media post about Sikh truck drivers.
Sikh temple shooting survivor highlights 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 United States. The shooter, Wade Michael Page, was a self-proclaimed white supremacist.
After Paporakis’ arrest in Illinois, authorities said they recovered guns, 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 murders and expressed his desire to kill as many non-white people as possible.
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 carry out these attacks don’t appear suddenly.
“Most people who do this have lost hope, and their motivation is also to make you and society lose hope,” he said. “They believe that if you can attack people in the space they consider most sacred, it sows deep terror in communities.”
The solution is to have frank conversations across racial and religious lines so people can understand each other on a human level, Kaleka said. “If this does not happen, we are more likely to see division rather than a collective spirit that unites us.”
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