the data is clear. The attacks are documented. Yet the conversation is dominated by smaller groups with better public relations.

According to the 2025 annual report from the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie en Europe, anti-Muslim hatred is not just rising in Europe but being actively normalised. The organisation documents a surge in physical violence and an institutionalisation of discrimination across the continent, and its introduction states that never have racist and discriminatory discourses seemed so banalised, spreading through political, media, and institutional spheres alike.

According to the 2025 annual report from the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie en Europe, anti-Muslim hatred is not just rising in Europe but being actively normalised. The organisation documents a surge in physical violence and an institutionalisation of discrimination across the continent, and its introduction states that never have racist and discriminatory discourses seemed so banalised, spreading through political, media, and institutional spheres alike.

The local councillor called it a ‘gut punch,’ noting the bitter irony that Muslim history is full of soldiers who wore a British uniform and gave their lives in the war against the Nazis. On the 8th of April, just last month, four men were remanded in custody over an alleged plot to attack a mosque in County Galway in Ireland, facing charges including an attempt to engage in terrorist-linked activity, with two also charged with possession of weapons and an explosive substance. And an arson attack on the Peacehaven Mosque in East Sussex, which took place in October 2025, only led to counterterrorism arrests in March 2026, many months after the fact and with little to no coverage.

These are not hypotheticals. They are real, recent, and happening with a frequency that any honest observer would call a crisis. Yet, they are not being treated as one.

Last week, news broke of an attack on an Islamic centre in Britain, the ‘Somali Muslim Organisation’ which was recently purchased. The media covered it, briefly, but the coverage was telling. The reporting focused on what the building used to be: a synagogue. The fact that it was attacked months after being purchased by Muslims was secondary, almost incidental. The implied message was clear enough though, that being that the building’s current owners are less legitimate than its former ones.