A/HRC/46/30
40 during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.125 Violent attacks
on Muslims attending mosques have occurred in Canada, 126 Norway 127 and the United
Kingdom,128 among others, leaving victims dead or injured. Frequently, the convicted or
alleged perpetrators of such attacks are far-right terrorists, harbouring febrile anti-immigrant
and anti-Muslim prejudices.129
The Special Rapporteur received numerous reports documenting attacks on Muslim
properties, including mosques, community centres, family homes and businesses, that have
been desecrated with offensive graffiti or animal carcasses, as in the case of a pig’s head
being nailed to the door of a school in Georgia.130 Such attacks have been reported widely,
including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 131 France, 132 Greece, 133 India, 134 Latvia, 135 North
Macedonia,136 Norway, 137 Sri Lanka,138 Switzerland139 and the United States.140 According to
OSCE, attacks on property, mainly on Fridays and religious holidays, are the most common
manifestation of Islamophobic violence.141
Muslim women are disproportionately targeted in Islamophobic hate crimes, 142
experiencing 90 per cent of such incidents in the Netherlands and 81 per cent in France.143
Similarly, in Australia and the United Kingdom, the victims of Islamophobic attacks are
mostly women and perpetrators are predominantly men. 144 Muslim women and girls are
subjected to verbal abuse, profanities, physical intimidation and death threats in public spaces,
with 96 per cent of female Muslims in one Australian survey reporting having been targeted
while wearing a headscarf.145 Perpetrators are often not deterred by the public visibility of
their attacks (60 per cent of reported incidents occurred in places with security officers and
surveillance) or the vulnerability of their targets (57 per cent of women victims were
unaccompanied).146 In Slovakia, a male passer-by in the street reportedly tried to strangle a
Muslim woman with her hijab while she held her baby in her arms.147
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
14
https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/the-report/executive-summary-2/executive-summary/.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42782097.
Submission by the International Alliance for Peace and Development.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42910051; www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/world/europe/uk-van-attacklondon-mosque.html.
www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/us/25debate.html.
Submission by ECRI.
Ibid.
www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/europe/french-muslims-worry-about-backlash-after-charliehebdo-attack.html and submission by the Global Interfaith Network for People of All Sexes, Sexual
Orientations, Gender Identities and Expressions.
Submission by the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe.
Submission by Citizens against Hate.
Submission by ECRI.
Submission by Legis.
www.tv2.no/a/4124776.
A/HRC/43/48/Add.2, paras, 26–29, and CERD/C/LKA/CO/10-17, para. 18.
Submission by the International Alliance for Peace and Development.
Submission by the Carter Center.
Submission by the European Union and https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-againstmuslims.
Australia (www.islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Islamophobia-Report-2019-2.pdf
and submission by the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network), Finland (submission by ECRI),
Netherlands (A/HRC/43/48/Add.1, paras. 64–65) and United States
(www.aclu.org/other/discrimination-against-muslim-women-fact-sheet?redirect=discriminationagainst-muslim-women-fact-sheet#9).
www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/16/how-muslim-women-bear-the-brunt-ofislamophobia/.
https://tellmamauk.org/tell-mamas-annual-report-for-2017-shows-highest-number-of-anti-muslimincidents/; www.islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Islamophobia-Report-2019-2.pdf.
www.islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Islamophobia-Report-2019-2.pdf,
submission by the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network; consultation in Asia and the Pacific.
www.islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Islamophobia-Report-2019-2.pdf and
submission by the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network.
Submission by the Islamic Foundation in Slovakia.