Baba UmarWashington DC — US Vice President JD Vance has addressed the San Diego mosque attack during a White House press briefing, calling the violence at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left two worshippers and a guard dead "reprehensible" and urging Americans to pray for the victims.
"I don't know a single person who would say anything other than what I'm about to say, which is that that type of violence in the United States of America is reprehensible, and I encourage every single American to pray for everybody who was involved and affected by it. We don't want that to happen in our country, and may God rest the souls of the people who lost their lives," Vance said during Tuesday's media briefing, which was dominated by US-Israeli war with Iran and ongoing negotiations.
He also condemned political violence broadly, regardless of its source, and urged Americans to "talk with one another, not shoot each other when we disagree." He said that it's a principle the US President Donald Trump agrees with.
Vance noted his wife Usha personal ties to San Diego, saying, "that Islamic community centre is actually very close to this restaurant that Usha and I go to every time we visit — her family lives in San Diego."
He said his wife "absolutely" would have known people who frequented the mosque.
'Most anti-Christian things you could do'
The shooting at the Islamic Centre of San Diego left three people dead, including a heroic security guard, Amin Abdullah, a father of eight, who officials say prevented a potential massacre of children and staff.
Investigators reportedly found hate speech and anti-Islamic writing inside the vehicle of the suspected shooters — Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, — who killed themselves soon after the attack on the city's largest mosque.
Authorities have found a suicide note referencing racial pride, and items like a Nazi SS insignia from the attackers.
On Tuesday, US officials seized over 30 firearms, including pistols, rifles, shotguns, and a crossbow, from residences linked to the attackers.
Vance framed the attack, which US authorities are investigating as a hate crime rather than terrorism, as fundamentally opposed to Christianity.
He described religious violence as "particularly disgusting" in America and said, "as a devout Christian, I would say it is one of the most anti-Christian things and anti-American things that you could do."
In the same remarks, Vance explicitly tied his condemnation of the violence to his Christian faith and Christian heritage, saying, "One of the fundamental American rights that I think came from our Christian heritage as a civilisation is the idea that we respect people's religious freedom in part because we respect them as human being but also because we respect their right to find their own pathway to God…"
"So, when you commit acts of violence, you're committing an act against this fundamental idea that people are created in the image of God and if they have the right through their own free will to find God however they might want…," he added.
The US vice president said anyone who commits violence against another human being in the name of religion is "doing something that is a violation, of course, of the laws of man, but I think more importantly, it is a fundamental violation of the laws of God."
