In recent months, Europe has seen several attacks that were confirmed to be terrorist hate crimes.
Last week, London police announced that an acid attack on two Muslim cousins in London is being treated as a hate crime.
Jameel Muhktar and Resham Khan were attacked with acid while out celebrating Khan's 21st birthday, as they were sitting in a car at traffic lights in east London.
While the attack was confirmed to be unprovoked, no reference to the ethnicity or religion of the perpetrator - who appears to be white - has been made on prominent news outlets and police initially ruled out a religious or racial motive for the crime.
The attack left Muhktar and Khan with "life-changing injuries", The Guardian reports, with Khan's career plans as an aspiring model in jeopardy.
Mukhtar, 37, told Channel 4 News that a man they did not know knocked on the car window and sprayed the toxic substance, leaving the two in excruciating pain that Mukhtar describes as "like somebody's ironing me 24/7".
Mukhtar was initially put in an induced coma and Khan underwent skin grafts. Both suffer from critical burns to the face and body.
"I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m going to be scarred for life. I’m emotionally wrecked. I'm in continuous pain," he said.
"We're innocent people. We didn’t deserve that. I’ve never seen this guy in my life. I don’t have any problems with anybody. My cousin is 21. She’s a business student. Why would anyone do that to us?"
Authorities are still on the hunt for the suspected attacker, who has been identified as 24-year-old John Tomlin. Police had initially eliminated religious or racial bigotry from the suspected motive behind the crime.
However, police announced on Friday that new evidence suggests otherwise and that they will investigate the assault as a hate crime, according to The Guardian.
Mukhtar believes that they were targeted because of their religion and said that "it’s definitely a hate crime" that has "something to do with Islamophobia".
Resham Khan's future is in jeopardy
The 21-year-old business student and aspiring model was due to start her new job this week and she has been called in for a job interview that she will not be able to attend.
With her severe visible injuries, her career in modeling might be at risk. "I'm devastated. I keep wondering if my life will ever be the same," Khan wrote on Twitter.
"If this was a white person that got attacked by an Asian person, it'd be all over the news," said Mukhtar.
Khan and Mukhtar both pointed out the double standards in the way the public deals with terror attacks. Khan noted that if the roles were reversed and a Muslim attacked white people, it would be "all over the news" and "the whole country knows it would be classed as a terror attack".
When it comes to international media and public perception, the focus is most often shed on terrorists when they are Muslim. Many are quick to highlight a terrorist's religion when he is Muslim, yet are hesitant to call a non-Muslim a terrorist.
In reality, however, Muslims are falling victim to terror attacks fueled by Islamophobia.
When gunmen opened fire outside a mosque in France, terrorism was out of question
Gunmen opened fire outside a mosque in southeast France on Sunday night, injuring eight people, including a seven-year-old girl.
Worshippers were leaving the mosque when at least two "hooded men" attacked them, but authorities are not treating it as a terror attack.
"From what we know this evening, the mosque was not targeted. The fact that it happened in the street of the religious establishment was unconnected with it," the prosecutor said, according to The Telegraph.