Yearender 2016: The rise of Islamophobia

The incidents of Islamophobia -- which include attacks on Muslims, intimidation, hate crime incidents as well as vandalism of mosques and Muslim businesses-- have only increased in number and frequency in the year 2016.

Earlier this year, French seaside resort Nice triggered much controversy with its burkini ban, the body-concealing Islamic swimsuit that has sparked heated debate in secular France. The ban in Nice referred specifically to the Bastille Day truck attack in the city that claimed 85 lives as well as the murder 12 days later of a Catholic priest near the northern city of Rouen.

A Hungarian village voted to ban the construction of mosques and the activity of muezzins, as well as the use of veils and headscarves like burqas, chadors and burkinis worn by Muslim women.

Bulgarian Parliament banned wearing of face veils in public, in a move which supporters said would boost security in the wake of Islamist militant attacks in Europe. People who do not follow the ban in Bulgaria face fines of up to 1,500 levs ($860) as well as suspension of social benefits.

The Dutch cabinet imposed partial ban on wearing the face-covering Islamic veil i.e. burqa, at public areas including schools, hospitals and public transport.

In the wake of the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States, women in Islamic hijab learnt self-defence techniques. The workshops launched by Abdelhamid for women are among a number of similar classes around the United States that have sprung up as Muslims perceive themselves to be under increasing threat.

US President-elect Donald Trump had said that Muslim immigrants pose the United States a security threat and called for 'a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.'

A 14-year-old Muslim boy in the US was arrested and suspended from school after he took a homemade clock to school that his teachers thought looked like an explosive device, triggering fears of Islamophobia.

The normally straight-laced Council on American-Islamic Relations tried humor to win over Republicans at their national convention handing out packets of a satirical medicine called 'Islamophobin', a treatment for Islamophobia.

New York unveiled a major public campaign to fight Islamophobia, stressing the equal rights of the city's hundreds of thousands of Muslims. The campaign -- launched in the wake of a Manhattan bomb attack blamed on a radicalized Afghan-American -- uses social media to spread the message under the hashtag #IAmMuslimNYC.