Society. A platform to better record Islamophobic attacks will be created by the end of May.

At a time when the Muslim community is upset by the prevailing Islamophobic climate, the State and the Association for Defense Against Discrimination and Anti-Muslim Acts (ADDAM) are going to launch an online platform to record Islamophobic attacks.

In 2024, 173 anti-Muslim incidents were officially recorded, 52% relating to attacks on property and 48% relating to attacks on people, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. "Who can believe these figures? They're completely meaningless!" reacted Bassirou Camara, president of Addam, created in February 2024 as part of the Forum for Islam in France (Forif). Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau himself acknowledged in February that these figures were "undoubtedly below the reality," while Islam, France's second largest religion, has between five and six million practicing and non-practicing Muslims, according to several studies.

An online reporting platform, managed by Addam and expected "before the end of May," should make it possible to "provide tangible data to legislators," with "figures closer to reality," and "enable public decision-makers to find solutions to a growing phenomenon," hopes Bassirou Camara.

To explain why victims are currently reluctant to report their attacks, Mathias Ott, the new interministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah), offers several reasons: "probably a form of self-censorship, fear too, and then a feeling of the futility of the process." "The aim of the public authorities is to encourage people to speak out, to file complaints, and to show that there is clearly no impunity in this area," the interministerial delegate continues.

A week after the death of a young Muslim man in a mosque in the Gard region, by a man who twice insulted his victim's religion , there is a lot of emotion in the community, which deplores a double standard. "We still manage to say that it wasn't a Muslim who was targeted. At some point we have to use the words as we rightly do against anti-Semitism, and call it Islamophobia," Myriam, 30, a dental assistant, said angrily at a rally in Paris on Thursday in tribute to the victim Aboubakar Cissé.

"We're suffocating, it's become commonplace to be racist, even if it's fashionable," Mariame also lamented at a previous rally, when Morad justified his presence at such a demonstration, a "first," by a feeling of "too much." Many participants in these recent demonstrations protested against the "too late" visit of Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who went to the Alès sub-prefecture 48 hours after the murder, and against comments "stigmatizing" the Muslim community.

Representatives of Muslim institutions received by the President of the Republic on Tuesday also denounced the "ambient Islamophobic climate," before meeting Bruno Retailleau the next day at a meeting planned "for a long time." "Under the guise of debates on secularism or the fight against extremism, some voices are trying to portray the free choice of a Muslim woman to wear the veil as a provocation, or even a threat," the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) reacted again on Wednesday following the attack on a young woman by a man who ripped off her veil on Monday in Yvelines.

The first three months of the year saw a dramatic increase in anti-Muslim acts of 72% compared to the period in 2024 with 79 cases recorded, according to the Interior Ministry's count. "After the 2015 attacks, we began to warn of a resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment, but today, there is no longer even a need for attacks or news stories," notes Bassirou Camara. " There is an ambient climate that is truly harmful to Muslims , even nauseating," warns the Addam representative, deploring the fact that they are designated "as being at the origin of all the ills of society, to the point of being ridiculous."