In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Sabiha Basrai felt her Muslim identity was a political statement and that her Americanness was in question.

Once again, the 34-year-old Oakland woman feels like her identity is even more under attack as nationwide anti-Shariah rallies are scheduled to take place on Saturday. One is set to occur on the Santa Clara-San Jose border, hosted by ACT for America — which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in the country.

After years of being on the defensive and months of listening to President Trump’s plans for a travel ban on mostly Muslim countries, fueling more mistrust of the Muslim American community, Basrai said she’s had enough.

She is planning to join scores of interfaith leaders, activists and residents in a unity rally on Saturday, right across the street from the anti-Shariah law rally.

“For a lot of us in the Bay Area, who grew up here, there’s been this feeling like we have to prove ourselves, prove our humanity, prove the fact that our values are just like yours, that we deserve civil rights just like you,” said Basrai, a member of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action.

Basrai said that like most Americans she watched in horror from her home as hijacked planes slammed into theWorld Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon and crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. She said she mourned with the rest of the country for the nearly 3,000 people killed.

But as the days went by, she started feeling anti-Muslim bigotry was legitimized — a sentiment that many say has only grown since Trump moved into the White House.

“I was personally fearful for my safety and for the safety of my family in a way I had never experienced before,” Basrai said of the growing anti-Muslim climate in the wake of Trump’s election.

Diana Gibson, an ordained Presbyterian minister and religious studies professor atSanta Clara University, scrambled to organize the unity rally when she first saw the anti-Shariah event online a week ago. She called on leaders of different synagogues, Buddhist temples, churches and mosques to come together to stand in solidarity with Bay Area Muslims.

“To me, this is both a threat to Muslims, but also a threat to our whole community and to the kind of community we want to have where we are all treasured,” Gibson said.

ACT For America was founded in 2007 by Brigitte Gabriel in response to the 9/11 attacks and works to push anti-Muslim legislation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in America. Since its founding, the group has grown to over 280,000 members and 1,000 chapters nationwide, according the law center.

The group was first designated as a hate group by the the law center in 2015, making it part of a network of the “most of the dangerous groups propagandizing out there,” saidHeidi Beirich, the director of Intelligence Project, part of the the law center that tracks hate groups.

But ACT for America claims not to be anti-Muslim.

“ACT for America supports peaceful practice of any religious faith,” an ACT spokesman said in a statement to The Chronicle. “In fact, we stand steadfast with the right of every American to their beliefs. This includes peaceful Islam. The elements that make up much of Sharia law, however, are not about religion, but oppression.”

The organization’s “March Against Sharia” is being billed as a call for human rights for women and children who are impacted by Shariah law in the United States, according to the group’s website.

The point of the counter rally isn’t to inflame tensions, but to send a strong visual message that hate isn’t welcome in the Bay Area, said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who’s working with Gibson and over 100 other organizations to co-sponsor the rally.

“In the wake of recent events happening locally, nationally, and internationally, we, at the city of Santa Clara, would like to reassure our community that we stand in solidarity with those who have been the targets of discrimination and bigotry,” said Santa Clara Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor.

Both the San Jose and Santa Clara police departments will send officers to the rallies, but officials for the agencies said they don’t expect any violence.

The March Against Sharia rally is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Stevens Creek Boulevard and Winchester Avenue in Santa Clara. The unity rally is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. across the street at Stevens Creek and Santana Row in San Jose.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani