A "worrying surge" of bigotry and discrimination against Muslims has been reported by the EU's top rights body, partly due to "dehumanizing anti-Muslim rhetoric."

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) recently conducted a large study of 9,600 Muslims in 13 EU member states, and the results showed that Muslims experience significant levels of discrimination and relative deprivation.

The findings showed that nearly half (47 percent) experience racial discrimination - up from 39 percent in 2016.

The figure was highest in Austria, where 71 percent of Muslims reported they had faced racial discrimination. In Germany, the figure was only slightly lower, at 68 percent. 

This discrimination often results in material hardship for large numbers of European Muslims.

The survey found that a third of Muslims could not buy or even rent a house because of discrimination, up from a fifth of Muslims in 2016.

And almost half of Muslims stopped by the police in the year before the survey thought their last stop was a result of racial profiling. 

Meanwhile, a third of Muslims said their households struggled to make ends meet, compared to a fifth of households generally.

'A worrying surge in discrimination'

However, although the findings have just been released, the survey was conducted before the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza. Over the last year, the FRA said, there has been a rise in anti-Muslim incidents. 

FRA director Sirpa Rautio said: "We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe.

"This is fuelled by conflicts in the Middle East and made worse by the dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric we see across the continent."

The survey canvassed Muslims in 13 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

The FRA has called on the EU and its member states to "properly enforce anti-discrimination laws as well as tougher sanctions for discrimination and hate crimes", as well as "eradicate discriminatory institutional practices and cultures that lead to unlawful police profiling".

This comes after several Muslim civil society groups in Europe warned last year that they faced a climate of "state-sponsored" Islamophobia. 

In Austria, the far-right Freedom party received the most votes of any party in the September general election, while in Germany the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland has seen a surge in support in recent months.

In 2022, France, the European Union and India objected to the creation of a United Nations-recognised international day to combat Islamophobia, a resolution proposed by Pakistan.