Stopping all Muslim immigrants from coming to America has been one of Donald Trump's key foreign policy platforms.
But American Muslims are fighting back against the Republican presidential candidate's racist and misinformed comments by opening their mosques.
They hope by educating the public about Islam and what happens inside mosques they will reduce the stigma surrounding their religion on America.
Muslim voter Anna Givens told SBS News Islamophobia was "rampant" in the US, and that Mr Trump was encouraging the hatred.
"Anything that comes out of his mouth is just a joke and unfortunately a lot of people take him seriously," she said.
"Women have their scarves ripped off them. A woman was egged. You know, it's very frightening, especially as a woman because we just want to hide."
At the Muslim Community Centre of San Diego, members of the public are being given a beginner's guide to Islam, Owais Siddiqui told SBS News.
San Diego residents take part in the open mosque program at the Muslim Community Centre in San Diego, California. (SBS News) Source: SBS News
"There's some misconceptions where people think that islam preaches something that it doesn't," he said.
"We see people who might think Islam has something to do with terrorism or violence and we actively encourage those people to just come and just talk to us."
The open mosques program also hopes to mobilise the one million new Muslim American voters.
Muslim Student Association president, Luqmaan Bokhary said it was disheartening to see how much hatred was directed at his community, but encouraging to see them becoming more involved politically.
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"It's really disheartening to see how much hatred that has come about but at the same time you see the Muslim community that has almost become united and they are trying their very best to be politically involved," he told SBS News.
"For the first time my grandmother in the primaries said 'when's the time to vote?' Meanwhile in 2012 she didn't even care to go out to the polls."
Mr Siddiqui said members of the Muslim community were becoming more important to political candidates as their numbers grew.
"In years past perhaps candidates didn't particularly focus on trying to reach out to the Muslim community as much, but I think that is certainly happening this year," he said.
"Not just here in California but nationwide, in particular the battleground states - Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are key battleground states where there are sizeable members of the Muslim community."
