• France, Australia, and the U.K. have witnessed a sharp rise in Islamophobic incidents, including the discovery of a severed pig’s head at a masjid in France.
• Islamophobic graffiti was discovered in Sydney, while abhorrently hateful messages targeting Muslims and Islam were found on a London train.
France
In a deeply troubling act of hatred against Muslims, a severed pig’s head was discovered in Pont-Saint-Esprit, located in France’s Gard department, during Friday prayers this week. The find was made by a municipal worker around 8:00 a.m., who promptly notified the police.
The Gard Prefecture confirmed that a judicial investigation is underway under the Nîmes Public Prosecutor to identify those responsible.
Pont-Saint-Esprit’s Mayor, Valère Segal, condemned the act as “horrible” and perpetrated by “unworthy people who are on the margins of society.” Following the incident, the mayor met with Yassine Taleb, president of the Muslim Cultural Association managing the mosque, to express solidarity and support.
“The entire city council stands behind the Muslim community. These people seek to divide us, but in the face of such acts, we strengthen our bonds,” Segal declared.
This disturbing incident is not isolated. In March, a similar attack targeted a predominately Turkish mosque in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais), where a pig’s head was placed at its entrance on the eve of Ramadan. Similarly, in 2019, a mosque construction site in Bergerac (Dordogne) was defiled with a pig’s head and walls smeared with animal blood.
While this incident is undeniably horrific, due to the hate-filled sentiment, it’s somewhat ironic that Islamophobes often use pigs as symbols of insult, as if Muslims are somehow unable to even look at the animal. The reality, however, is simply that Islam prohibits the consumption of pigs—not any form of interaction with or presence around them.
A recent report by the Collective Against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) highlights a sharp rise in anti-Muslim incidents across France. In 2023, 828 Islamophobic acts were recorded—a stark 57% increase from the 527 cases reported in 2022.
The breakdown of these incidents reveals the breadth of discrimination:
• 779 cases of discrimination
• 237 instances of moral harassment
• 188 acts of provocation or incitement to hatred
• 23 physical assaults
Disturbingly, the report found that 81.5% of the victims were Muslim women, illustrating the intersection of gender, religion, and ethnicity in these attacks.
The educational sector has become a hotspot for Islamophobic acts, with 305 cases reported in 2023—constituting 41% of all incidents.
These repeated assaults on Muslim communities and places of worship reflect a troubling rise in hostility in France.
Australia
Last week, New South Wales police launched an investigation into a hate crime after Islamophobic graffiti was discovered on a busy underpass in Sydney’s west.
The abhorrently offensive graffiti was found overnight on Hector Street in Chester Hill, prompting police to cordon off the area and begin their investigation early on Sunday morning. The messages, including “Fu** Islam” with the word “Islam” highlighted in yellow and the phrase “Cancel Islam” sprayed on an advertisement.
NSW police indicated that, if a suspect is apprehended, they would “likely” face charges related to a hate crime. Chester Hill, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the state, with nearly 40% of residents identifying as Muslim, is also situated near a busy shopping area with numerous halal restaurants and grocers.
The Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, immediately condemned the graffiti, calling it “disgusting” and highlighting the detrimental impact of such acts: “
“Vandalism like this that is aimed at particular religions is designed to incite hatred and is completely abhorrent. This racism and Islamophobia is disgusting and corrosive to the very fabric of the successful multicultural state that we have built here in NSW.”
Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, also labelled the graffiti an act of “hatred” and “bigotry,” stating: “Like other forms of dehumanising abuse, Islamophobia has no place in Australia.” Similarly, Jason Clare, a fellow federal minister and the local MP for Blaxland, denounced the vandalism as a “gutless attack on our community,” stressing that there is “no place in Australia for Islamophobia.”
The Australian National Imams Council issued a call for “immediate and decisive action” from both federal and state governments, describing the increase in Islamophobic incidents as a “surge” and a critical failure in addressing systemic Islamophobia. They stressed the importance of implementing robust anti-racism policies and prioritising hate crime investigations to safeguard all communities in Australia.
The Islamophobia register, which has tracked incidents of anti-Muslim sentiment across Australia since 2014, reported receiving daily accounts of discrimination, verbal abuse, physical assaults, and online hate. Alarmingly, they recorded a staggering 600% increase in reported Islamophobic incidents over the past year, underscoring the escalating threat to the safety of Muslims. Furthermore, the register criticised Liberal Senator Dave Sharma’s recent claim that Islamophobia was “fictitious,” asserting that “lived experiences” of Muslims demonstrate the undeniable and growing presence of Islamophobia in Australian society.
U.K
This morning, a Bakerloo Line train in London was defaced with vile Islamophobic abuse and explicit support for far-right figure Tommy Robinson. The offensive graffiti was discovered on the train, prompting an immediate response from authorities who swiftly took the train out of service for cleaning. Such disturbing incidents of hate speech not only undermine public safety but also highlight the alarming rise in Islamophobia and far-right extremism, prompting for the emboldened actions of other far-right figures rippling throughout the U.K.
London is home to approximately 1.3 million Muslims, according to the 2021 Census data. This represents around 15% of the city’s total population, making it the largest Muslim community in the United Kingdom.
