Whenever a society fails its young, someone goes looking for a stranger to blame. In recent weeks, as protests have spread across Europe, that stranger has once again been the Muslim migrant. Foreign  political figures, social media influencers and anonymous accounts have attributed the unrest to “invasion,” to Islam’s supposed incompatibility with European values, and to infiltration from abroad. AI-generated images showing France overrun by “hordes of migrants” have circulated widely. The claim is false, and it is also dangerous. It wrongs an entire community, and it diverts attention from the economic and institutional failures that deserve serious scrutiny.

Europe is restless again. From Paris to Milan, Madrid to Lisbon, Brussels to Tirana and Athens, students, workers and ordinary citizens have taken to the streets over crumbling public services, unaffordable housing, stagnant wages and rising living costs. Their movements differ in origin and demand. There is no single European uprising with one command or one programme. Taken together, however, they expose a widening gap between what citizens expect of their governments and what those governments are able, or willing, to deliver.

Evidence versus propagandaOn 21 October, French President Emmanuel Macron rebuked foreign figures for linking Muslim migrants to France’s riots without evidence. He described the circulation of fabricated images as unacceptable and warned of a deliberate manipulation of information by people using France’s turmoil for their own political campaigns. The distinction he drew matters. Those responsible for arson, looting or violence must answer for their acts, but criminal responsibility cannot be assigned to a religious community. Nor do episodes of disorder explain why the demonstrations began.

Muslim migrants did not empty French classrooms of teachers. They did not double Lisbon’s rents or erode the purchasing power of households from Rome to Athens. To invoke them is to avoid the harder questions.

What the protesters actually wantThe record is plain. In France, the unrest began with school........

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