How do you deal with fear of terror threats against a relative?

It’s highly unlikely that your father will be on the recieving end of a violent altercation. Those don’t happen with nearly the frequency some people might suppose.

Is your Dad doing anything that would attract attention? If not, he is unlikely to be targeted.

If your anxiety is interfering with your life or out of control, you should seek therapy or medication.

I’m not an American citizen, but the general feeling I get is that this isn’t as common an occurrence as some imagine it to be.
Living with fear like that is usually a reflection of something going on inside ourselves. Perhaps it’s related to your recent loss? If it’s consuming you to the point where you’re not sleeping, etc, it might be helpful to find an outside support such as a counsellor.

more likely to get struck by a shark, or eaten by lightening.

Not real sure about an overwhelming rash of hate crimes against Muslims in the US. There are hundreds of thousands of horrible Muslim hate murders (stoning, beheading, burning alive etc) right in their own homelands of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. And those are committed by Muslims!
Anyway, I would say that unless your father tries to set off a bomb in an airplane or cut off somebody’s head, he will never have a problem. I happen to know, through a good friend, a lot of Muslims (mostly Palestinian) and they are not in any danger, nor do they imagine that they are.

These dudes that own the Circle K down the road used to be so nice and jolly..they own a couple of the utotems here.. but after 9/11 it’s like their souls were abducted..they don’t smile at noone anymore.. and they don’t let me get away with a slacking $.50 on a 40 oz no more either. So, I kinda know what your talking about.. maybe not hate “crimes” not in my little town..but surely hate looks..and unspoken words. prays God, please give American-Muslims their souls back. If not for them, for me and my lushy ways. Amen

You could just as well ask how do we deal with the fact that the number one cause of death in this country is largely preventable? Well how about the fact that one of the top causes of death to children is car wrecks?

People mostly deal with these situations by ignoring them.

One thing you might do is discourge people from watching Glenn Beck or anything on Fox News. There current talking points seem to be anti-Muslim but take heart, they are turning more and more to attacking Hispanic immigrants. I would suggest that your father should make an effort not to appear to Hispanic. Avoid cowboy hats and gang tattoos.

@josie but there aren’t hundreds of thousands of horrible Muslims, where do you dredge up this biased horse shit? There are a select few who are extremely reactionary, you paint a picture of Hell populated by legions of rabid Arabs foaming at the mouth, stoning adulterers en masse. if that were the case there would be chaos and carnage in Western cities, in Indian cities in Jerusalem.