After being brutally assaulted by two men on Monday, a Muslim woman in Belgium became the latest victim of a racially motivated hate crime.
According to local media reports, the 19-year-old woman, whose name remains unknown to the public, was assaulted in a town near Brussels while walking alone in an alley.
The men approached her and blocked her path before ripping her headscarf off. They did not stop there. They also teared up her shirt, exposing her upper body.
As she attempted to escape, the men began calling her a "filthy Arab" before physically assaulting the woman.
They pushed her to the ground and used a sharp object to cut parts of her body, according to TRT World. The cuts were made to resemble the shape of a cross.
Soon after, the men fled the incident scene. The woman's health status remains unknown as local police have launched an investigation into the serious crime.
Philippe Tison, the Mayor of Anderlues - the town where the attack took place - expressed shock in a Facebook post two days after the attack.
"I am shocked to hear that a racist aggression against one of our women was perpetrated in Anderlues this Monday. It is a heinous and despicable act that saddens all elected officials and the entire population," he wrote.
"Knocked her to the ground"
Four words: "Misogyny, racism, religion, violence"
"This is not only an Islamophobic hate crime, but a sexual assault too"
"Tell me again how Muslims are the problem!"
Islamophobia in Europe is alarmingly rising
According to the European Islamophobia Report 2017, Islamophobia is rising in Europe. The report details the number of crimes that took place against Muslims in 2017, from verbal and physical attacks to attempted murder.
Of the countries included in the report, Germany had a reported 908 crimes, Poland (664), Netherlands (364), Austria (256), France (121), Denmark (56), and Belgium (36).
A 2017 study also exposed negative sentiments towards Muslims in different parts of Europe, namely Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The study asked 10,000 people from outside the Muslim community from the stated countries whether they would want to have Muslims as neighbors.
One-fifth of the European participants surveyed said they would not want to live next door to an individual who follows the religion of Islam.
"20 percent of citizens questioned say they do not want to have Muslims as neighbors," Germany's Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation, which carried out the study as part of the Religious Monitor 2017 project, wrote in the report.