PORTLAND — With violence targeting places of worship on the rise across the country, a group of religious leaders in Maine will soon ask for help from state lawmakers.

Led by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the faith leaders are backing LD 2107, which proposes to create a $2 million grant program that will help improve security at nonprofits, which includes religious organizations.

More than 20 other states have similar programs, often with bipartisan backing, said Zach Schwartz, director of the council.

“Right now, we’re seeing the most death threats, the most targeted antisemitic harassment and violent threats that are being sent to our synagogues,” he said. “It’s the most we’ve seen in our lifetime. Literally since World War II.” 

And it’s not just synagogues at risk.

M. Nasir Shir, a Muslim community member, and Savy Kuch, a leader in the largest Buddhist temple in Maine, say they too fear for the safety of those who visit their places of worship.

“A majority of our community are immigrants, whether Somalians or Indians or Afghans, and so some of them have the paperwork, some are in the process of the paperwork, and they are very scared to come for worship to do their daily prayers,” Shir said.

Schwartz said the grant program, which the bill proposes to place in the Office of the Attorney General, would provide funds for physical security upgrades or the cost of hiring security officers. When he speaks with leaders across the religious spectrum, most say they need funds to hire armed guards to increase security around major holidays. 

Shir said his community would not want armed guards, but something similar to a school resource officer who regularly patrols the areas outside the mosques.

He recalled hard times after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Muslims in the U.S. were targeted by hateful rhetoric and physical confrontations.

“We were the targets, no matter who you were or what you did you were guilty by the name because you were associated with being a Muslim,” he said.

From the Buddhist perspective, Kuch said the older generation came to the U.S. to escape the brutal Khmer Rouge dictatorship in Cambodia. When they established a temple here, they wanted to practice peacefully and be part of the community, she said. 

But they too suffered break-ins and hateful messages.

“All we want to do is have the same opportunity of the American Dream, to build a safe life here in America,” she said.

The bill will get a public hearing before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks. The bill proposes to allocate one-time funding from the state general fund to improve “security to protect against hate crimes and terror attacks,” according to the bill’s language.

Schwartz said the bill would make funds available not only to religious groups, but nonprofits that provide help to immigrants, those seeking reproductive health care and others. The goal is to be prepared as much as possible for what could happen. 

“When we see the mass shootings happening across the United States toward all of our different communities, it’s not a question of if an attack is going to happen, it’s when an attack is going to happen,” he said. “And that’s so so sad to say but that threat and fear is very real.”