A/HRC/35/41 them as dangerous people.14 This was in addition to the already disturbing situation of antiSemitic acts and attitudes. In another Eastern European country, anti-refugee rhetoric was on the rise, with refugees being negatively described as bringing diseases to the country.15 52. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that, in one Middle Eastern country, the volatile situation between the majority and the minority has deteriorated with the rise of global terror. By invoking strong antiterrorism rhetoric, while aligning the country’s minority and their political aspirations in the region with that of radical Islam, Parliament has adopted several amendments to the country’s primary laws in an effort to fight terror. 16 In one Mediterranean country, where the Muslim population is approximately 18 per cent of the overall population, Islamophobia is widespread in public discourse, with several politicians in mainstream political parties leading open attacks on Muslims and presenting them as invaders without any legal ground to seek asylum in the country. 53. The Special Rapporteur learned that, in some Latin American countries, the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric, both in politics and the media, has mirrored the global trend of antiMuslim sentiment, leading to stigmatization and fear of the Muslim communities that have long inhabited the region. A popular news source in one South American country released an article asserting that more than half of the Muslims in the world were radicalized. 54. In the Asia-Pacific region, negative portrayals of ethnic minorities were also reported. The Government of one Asian country portrayed a Muslim minority ethnic group as having been influenced by foreign terrorist organizations, escalating the already tense relations between the ethnic minority and the majority. 17 In one Southeast Asian nation, Muslims are similarly portrayed as foreign and dangerous in the mainstream national discourse.18 In the recent parliamentary elections in 2016 in a South Pacific country, one party running on a nationalist far-right platform, which utilized anti-Muslim rhetoric, made unexpectedly large gains in Parliament, resulting in bargaining power with the ruling party.19 55. Following the heightened fear of terrorism often linked with counter-terrorism measures and negative rhetoric to Muslim identity, a wave of hate crimes intensified against Muslims or those perceived to be Muslims in countries where Muslim identity is racialized or considered foreign. 56. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned that hate crimes in one Western European country have targeted asylum seekers. In 2016, those xenophobic attacks, which included arson attacks against reception facilities, almost doubled from the previous year. 20 57. In South America, Islamophobia is predominantly manifested in xenophobic slurs and acts of aggression towards Muslims. This is especially true immediately after widely televised terrorist attacks. For example, there was a sharp spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes following terrorist attacks that occurred in 2015.21 58. The Special Rapporteur is monitoring long-standing repression of an ethnic minority in one Asian country, which has increasingly been justified by the Government as counterterrorism action. Following an attack, which killed border police officers in 2016, the Government retaliated by launching a violent counter-insurgency, in which villages were burned and hundreds of civilians were beaten, raped or killed. 22 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 12 Ibid. Ibid. See https://perma.cc/76SD-KUT3. See https://perma.cc/HM25-LEM7 and https://perma.cc/AF83-24QE and www.refworld.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=search&docid=54cf83b51b&skip=0&query=world%20report%202015% 20&coi=CHN. See https://perma.cc/G8AF-3QYF. See https://perma.cc/AF4A-AGWM and https://perma.cc/X5H8-5LED. See http://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2016/current-migration-situation-eu-hate-crime-november2016. See https://perma.cc/EU7R-M9B7 (in Portuguese). See https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/21/burma-rohingya-recount-killings-rape-and-arson.