An American white supremacist is facing terrorism charges after being arrested on accusations of threatening to carry out a Christchurch-like gun attack on a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan.
Local US police have identified the 32-year-old as Macin Horstemeyer from the city of Lynchburg in Virginia, who is currently being held at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail without bond.
Horstemeyer, who was arrested following a month-long investigation on September 22, is facing charges of threatening the public, making threats online, soliciting terrorism, and conspiring to commit an act of terrorism.
Police are continuing an active and ongoing investigation, so refused to comment at this stage according to local press, however, court documents are revealing disturbing allegations which the media has begun reporting on.
Horstemeyer told officers during an interview last week, that if he did go on to carry out an attack, he would have targeted a mosque in Dearborn with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Police did not say which mosque was targeted.
Michigan is a US State which boasts a significantly sizeable community of Arab and Muslim Americans, particularly in the city of Dearborn.
Dearborn has been the focus of many headlines in recent weeks as a row over mosque loudspeakers playing the adhan publicly went viral online, and a Muslim mayor confronting an Islamophobic Christian minister at a council meeting also sparked a right-wing backlash on social media.
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Online activities
Investigators also said Horstemeyer originally started making threats on YouTube videos from February 2025 which continued for several months. Some of the content related to “murdering black people and Muslims”.
The alarming nature of the content led to Google eventually notifying the FBI.
Investigators also noted that in the comments, he seemed to idolise Dylann Roof, who shot up a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
When officers questioned Horstemeyer about his activity online, he reportedly told them watching recent videos about terrorist groups from the Middle East made him upset, and it was “only thoughts he had in his head”.
He also allegedly confessed that while not affiliated with any specific group, he does believe in white supremacy.
Following the announcement of terrorism charges being filed, the Executive Director of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Dawud Walid said: “We welcome the terrorism charges brought against this individual who allegedly posed a threat to our community.
“This case highlights the growing danger of white supremacist violence and the urgent need for continued vigilance and accountability. The Muslim community in Dearborn and across the country deserves to worship in peace without fear of being targeted for their faith. We are grateful to the law enforcement agencies that took these threats seriously.
“We urge law enforcement and elected officials to continue to address the rising tide of domestic extremism with the same seriousness they would apply to any other form of terrorism.”
America has witnessed a tremendous spike in racist and Islamophobic attacks on Muslim and Arab Americans in recent years following the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Last October, a 73-year-old Detroit man was charged for attacking a 7-year-old Yemeni-American Muslim girl with a knife at a park, slashing her throat – fortunately, the girl survived the attack.
Then in May 2025, an Illinois landlord who fatally stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and severely wounded his mother has been sentenced to 53 years in prison.
Earlier in February the same year, two Israeli tourists in Miami were shot by a Jewish-American man who had reportedly told police he’d carried out the attack thinking they were Palestinians.
