Hawzah News Agency (Paris - France) - The scourge of far-right extremism making Muslims the main target has increased manifold in Europe and recent reports reveal that France is worst hit by this climate of hatred.

With the largest Muslim population in Europe, France's five million Muslims have faced 154 attacks in 2019, a sharp 54 percent spike compared to the previous year.

Abdallah Zekri, president of the National Observatory of Islamophobia, recently issued a written statement saying the years of misinformation and propaganda spread through international media linked Islam with individual or collective acts of terror, leaving Muslims all over the world in a precarious situation and threatening their existence on the planet.

One of the main reasons behind the rising hate crimes against Muslims has been the wave of terrorist attacks in recent years despite many officials in the French government asking people to not confuse the actions of radicalized individuals with the religion of Islam and turn Muslims into soft-targets for the far-right, white supremacist groups.

But facts have barely mattered to those who hate Muslims simply for their religious identity. As a result, French Muslims are reeling under the threat of radical anti-Muslim forces who over the years have felt emboldened to even take the law in their hands and engage in what can easily qualify as  acts of terrorism. Whenever terror groups such as Daesh and al-Qaida carry out attacks anywhere in the West, these anti-Muslim groups find an excuse to inflict violence upon French Muslims.

Yasser Louati, Human Rights Advocate and Head of the Justice & Liberties For All Committee, told TRT World that the climate has become "highly dangerous," with Islamophobic attitudes and narratives being "condoned by public institutions, political parties and the media."

"So much that it has become the most respectable form of racism. Islamophobia brings together the whole French political spectrum,” Louati said.

In French politics, Louat said, using Islamophobic reasoning is "a high return and lowrisk political positioning" that helps politicians from the far-left to far-right gain electoral advantage.