Alexandros Paporakis, a 19-year-old white supremacist man from Palatine, Illinois, in the US, was arrested on 11th October for plotting a mass shooting of Indian origin Hindus temple in Aurora at the start of Navratri. The police recovered an AR-style rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition, tactical gear, Nazi symbols, and a manifesto in which he described himself as a “sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi.”
The white supremacist wanted to carry out mass killings of Indian Hindus; a rifle jam averted the terror attack
The Palatine Police, Mount Prospect Police and prosecutors have stated that the accused, Alexandros Paporakis, who worked as a Taco Bell cashier, drove to the area where the largest Hindu temple in Aurora, the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple, is situated, with the intention of carrying out a mass shooting of Indians.
As the Navaratri festival was underway, the temple was busy with people. Paporakis’s rifle jammed; he fled the spot, searched online how to unjam it, and contacted a co-worker about his murderous plan. The co-worker, however, alerted the police.
Thereafter, the local police arrested the accused, Alexandros Paporakis, outside his house before any further attempt at a mass shooting.
During a search at his home, the police recovered an AR-style rifle, multiple magazines, nearly 300 rounds of ammunition, a tactical vest with body armour and a white supremacist patch, along with Nazi imagery including the Hakenkreuz symbol, which the Western media continues to wrongly report as ‘Swastika’, and a gas can.
The Aurora Hindu temple shooter’s manifesto dehumanising Indians, Jews and African Americans
Pertinently, the police have also found an eight-page document, the Aurora Hindu temple shooter’s manifesto titled: Why I Fought: A.K.A.
The manifesto contains racial slurs, declaring Indians/Hindus, Jews, and African Americans “subhumans” and expressing fantasies about mass murder nearly every day. Paporakis repeatedly emphasised his desire to kill as many people belonging to the races and nationalities he hated as he could before he dies.
According to the prosecutors, accused Alexandros Paporakis, has openly identified as a white supremacist at work, made racist comments against Indians, discussed Nazis and their armed struggle. He also said that he could not wait to kill Indian people.
Reports say that the accused shooter told his co-worker that 11th October would be a “special day” and planned a mass shooting at the largest Hindu temple in Aurora.
The Palatine Police said that the accused was planning for a mass shooting attack for about two years, and he researched the specific target, the Hindu temple, recently.
The police have booked him on charges of making a terrorist threat and unlawful possession of a weapon, specifically a rifle with a barrel under 16 inches.
A Cook County judge ordered him held without bond. As per court records, the accused was being treated for ADHD, depression, and anxiety, and received hormone injections related to gender transition.
Meanwhile, the top US Hindu temples body, the Hindu Mandir Empowerment Council (HMEC), issued an urgent security alert for temples in the US after the thwarted Aurora temple shooting plot.
White supremacism, Christian extremism, and MAGA rhetoric are collectively fueling hatred against Indians, mainly Hindus
From the orientalist caricatures in the 19th-20th century, fears of ‘eastern/Asian mysticism’ eroding Protestant ‘purity’ to anti-Hindu violence, racism is deeply entrenched in American socio-political structure. However, ever since Donald Trump assumed office as the President of the United States in January 2025, the agitprop against Indians, particularly Hindus, has increased manifold.
OpIndia has reported earlier on how the debate around H1-B visas and highly skilled Indians using the same to explore career opportunities in the US in recent months snowballed into a full-fledged anti-India and anti-Hindu campaign.
There has been an alarming mainstreaming of Hinduphobia in the US in recent years. Incidents of temple vandalism, online slurs, racist attacks on American Hindus, and Christian extremists openly mocking and vilifying Hinduism online or on podcasts have become an opprobrious ‘normal’ in the country.
The anti-Indian and anti-Hindu hate and its online expression is so scathing that white supremacists, Christian extremists and a significant section of MAGA racists have not spared even the top Indian/Hindu Trump administration officials.
From vilifying FBI Director Kash Patel and US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard for wishing everyone a happy Diwali, mocking the Trump administration for celebrating Diwali in the White House, attacking JD Vance’s Hindu wife Usha Chilukuri, and questioning Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hindu faith, to making absurd ‘Indians poaching wildlife in Canada and America’ claims, Indians and Hindus, who are a peaceful, law-abiding community making significant contributions to American economy, have been constantly targeted for their faith.
Besides, White racists and Christian supremacists have been villainising Indian Americans to lend credence to their ‘White Replacement Theory’. In fact, ‘Nuke India’ calls by these Christian extremists have also become a new ‘cool’ among American racists and Hinduphobes.
The unchecked expression of Hinduphobia by the many Joel Webbons, Alex Steins, Alexander Duncans, Nick Fuentas, Elijah Schaffer and others is now becoming the precursor of race- and religion-based violence against American Hindus of Indian origin.
In fact, even mainstream political leaders have publicly or in private expressed their pro-Nazi and anti-India views.
Last year, an exposé revealed that the leaders of a Republican Party-affiliated group, Young Republicans, exchanged racist, anti-India, anti-Black, pro-Nazi, and homophobic messages in a Telegram group chat. From furthering hygiene stereotypes against Indians to suggesting that Indians are not trustworthy, the Republican leaders of the now-disbanded group demonstrated how India-hate has been normalised in the American political circle.
It was reported earlier that US Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, a Hindu by religion and a daughter of Indian immigrants, was subjected to racist and Hinduphobic attacks from White Christian supremacists who are mostly Republican Party supporters. Vance was also called names for marrying an Indian Hindu ‘heathen’.
Earlier, American commentator and author Ann Coulter told Vivek Ramaswamy on his podcast that she wouldn’t have voted for him because he is an Indian. On numerous occasions, during his stint for the Presidential nomination bid from the Republican Party, he had to face questions on Hinduism. Even a patriot like Tulsi Gabbard has been attacked for her Hindu faith and Indic roots. Kash Patel was condemned by the same racist lot for taking his oath to office as FBI director on the sacred Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida Governor and Republican leader, earlier dismissed Indian tech workers as a “cottage industry” scam. His remarks added fuel to the MAGA narrative, which portrays Indians as ‘job-stealing invaders’. His anti-H1-B rhetoric has added to online racist attacks on Indian-Americans, Indians and Hinduism. OpIndia reported earlier on how the debate around H1-B visas and highly skilled Indians using the same to explore career opportunities in the US snowballed into a full-fledged anti-India and anti-Hindu campaign.
In September last year, Alexander Duncan, a Texas GOP official, demanded the removal of an idol of Lord Hanuman from public space, calling the Hindu deity a “false God.” In an X post published on 20th September 2025, Duncan shared a video showcasing the 90-foot-tall statue of Lord Hanuman installed in the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in the town of Sugar Land, Texas, and wrote, “Why are we allowing a false statue of a false Hindu God to be here in Texas? We are a CHRISTIAN nation!”
Donald Trump’s Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, whom Trump had unleashed as his attack dog to vilify India over its Russian oil purchases, slandered the Brahmin community. In an interview with Fox News, Navarro invoked caste and accused the Brahmins of India of “profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”
From using fake caste-discrimination narratives to villainise Hindus in American universities, bringing up SB-403-like outrageous caste bills, relying on fake litigation like the 2019 CISCO caste discrimination case, running anti-Brahmin DEI programs, to targeting Hindu gods and temples, directing hate towards Hindu officials in the Trump administration, anti-Hindu and anti-India forces, be it Islamo-leftists or white racists and Christian extremists, all are essentially spreading, normalising, and celebrating Hinduphobia and anti-India racism.
In 2022, the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee, a section of the New Jersey Democratic Party, approved a resolution labelling certain Hindu organisations as ‘dangerous hate groups’ and offshoots of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The motion urged that the government classify several American Hindu organisations, including the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), and SEWA International, as “domestic branches” of “foreign hate groups.”
In recent years, hate crimes against Indian Americans have also been on the rise. According to the FBI’s 2020 data, hate crimes against Indian Americans are up by 500 per cent.
In addition to politics and social media, even the American media and academia perpetuate anti-Hindu bias through selective outrage and erasure. OpIndia has on numerous occasions reported how newspapers like the New York Times, among others, have also been complicit in spinning and amplifying anti-Hindu narratives.
OpIndia previously reported how DEI programs have been normalising hatred against Hindu Brahmins in the US. In their attempts to foment the same hate Nazis had for Jews, several DEI programs were creating prejudices against Hindus, particularly the so-called “upper-caste” Hindus like Brahmins, who are already at the receiving end of hate campaigns by anti-Hindu elements.
White supremacists and Christian extremists have normalised slandering and mocking Hindu deities, labelling them ‘demonic’ and ‘false gods’. This anti-Hindu and anti-India hate has triggered real harm against the American Indians, particularly Hindus.
In July 2025, a video of a White American berating an Indian man with “Why are you in my country? I don’t like you guys here. There are too many of you guys here. Indians! You guys are flooding all the white countries. I am tired of it. Americans are sick of this sh**. I want you to go back to India…”
In Irving, Texas, three masked men carrying “Don’t India My Texas” signs showed up in a suburb where thousands of Indian tech professionals reside in October 2025.
The concerted campaign of dehumanising Indians, especially Hindus, is further aided by Indian Islamo-leftists, who share nothing in common with American Christian and white supremacists but their hate for Hindus.
Indian Islamo-leftists have consistently indulged in the demonisation of Hindus, and egged on criticism of Indians abroad by design to blame everything on the Modi government in India.
Any US leader makes an anti-India statement, or a US government-funded entity like the USCIRF churns out a propaganda report against India, vilifies Hindutva, or slanders Hindus, the Indian left is quick to portray it as a matter of national shame and a ‘Hindutva is the new Nazism’ narrative is pushed, all to score political points against the Modi government and for the ideological pursuit of demeaning Hindus.
In fact, there is a documented pattern of many leftist and pro-Congress online trolls supporting MAGA to attack Gujaratis, who are largely pro-BJP and Modi, as a proxy to attack the Modi government.
In November 2023, after India lost the ICC World Cup Final at Gujarat’s Narendra Modi Stadium, Indian leftists somehow found it an occasion to blame Gujaratis and berate Gujarati culture. Even as cricket fans were discussing what went wrong on the field, liberal eyes were fixed on one thing – identity, the Gujarati identity.
The left-liberals targeted Gujaratis for lacking sportsmanship and lacking a ‘sporting culture’ because the crowd apparently failed to cheer the home side properly.
This, however, was not really about the sport, but a manifestation of hate against Gujaratis as well as against anyone supposedly ‘jingoist’ that has been on the rise since Narendra Modi won the general elections in 2014.
This hate against Gujaratis was first mainstreamed by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in 2021, who said that if Congress came to power in the state, he would increase the wage rate of tea workers, emphasising that he would take money from Gujarati tea traders to fund that extra wage rate.
In September 2021, when authorities were busy busting drug rackets, which are often used for terror funding, Rahul Gandhi again attacked Gujaratis and cast aspersions that we are drug addicts.
In January 2022, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and MP Akhilesh Yadav spewed hatred on Gujaratis and accused them of ‘taking away everything’. Before that, Mamata Banerjee had led a hate campaign against Gujaratis and vowed not to let ‘Bengal turn into Gujarat’. In a blatant display of hatred against Gujaratis, she alleged, “Gujaratis are trying to capture Bengal by bringing goons from UP and Bihar.” The West Bengal CM had emphasised, “We will not allow Bengal to become like Gujarat.”
This hatred of Indian left-liberals is shared by Khalistani terrorists in the US, UK and other foreign nations. In May 2023, a video surfaced from the UK wherein a pro-Khalistani goon could be seen threatening a man of Gujarat origins. The viral video showed a Gujarati Hindu man trying to have a conversation with the protesting pro-Khalistanis when one of them got agitated and started shouting at him.
Earlier, Sujata Anandan, the editor of the fraud-accused Congress mouthpiece National Herald, who equated vegetarianism of Gujaratis and Jains living in Mumbai to “food terrorism”, had asked Gujaratis to leave Maharashtra is they don’t like the smell of fish.
While these anti-India and anti-Hindu online attacks by foreign and Indian Hinduphobes may not always be coordinated, there is a broader pattern of fueling hatred and even inciting violence against Indians, particularly Hindus, in countries like the US, UK, and Canada, further exacerbated by the surging fascination for Neo-Nazism, as seen in the case of Alexandros Paporakis.
