Islam in France

Integration

Accepted French citizens

Notwithstanding the islamist extremists' terrorist attacks in France, including the Charlie Hebdo and Nice terror attacks, some studies have concluded that France is the European country where Muslims integrate the best and feel the most for their country, and that French Muslims have the most positive opinions about their fellow citizens of different faiths. A 2006 study from the Pew Research Center on Integration is one such study. In Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region where French Muslims tend to be more educated and religious, the vast majority rejects violence and say they are loyal to France according to studies by Euro-Islam, a comparative research network on Islam and Muslims in the West sponsored by GSRL Paris/CNRS France and Harvard University. On the other hand, a 2013 IPSOS survey published by the French daily Le Monde, indicated that only 26% of French respondents believed that Islam was compatible with French society (compared to 89% identifying Catholicism as compatible and 75% identifying Judaism as compatible). A 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that out of all Europeans, the French view Muslim minorities most favorably with 72% having a favorable opinion. Other research has shown how these positive attitudes are not always reflected in popular opinion and the subject of Muslim integration in France is much more nuanced and complex.

In April 2018, an Algerian Muslim woman refused to shake hands with an official for religious reasons at a citizenship ceremony. As an applicant must demonstrate being integrated into society as well as respect for French values, officials considered her not integrated and denied her citizenship application.

Religiosity

According to a poll by Institut français d'opinion publique in 2020, 46% of a sample of 10,000 Muslims gave the view that their religious beliefs were as important than the "French values" and laws. Among Muslims under 25 years old, a large majority (74%) considered their religion more important than "French values."

LGBT acceptance

A 17-year-old Gallup poll, published in 2009, showed that 35% of French Muslims believed that homosexuality is morally acceptable.

Unemployment

In October 2020, the unemployment among Muslims was far higher at 14% than the population at large (8%); religious discrimination and ethnic-origin discrimination against French Muslims is common in French employment practices and processes, French people with Arabic-language surnames (whether they are Muslim, Christian, or Jewish) experience hurdles in French workplaces.

Education

According to a poll by Institut Montaigne in 2016, 25% of Muslims in France had less than secondary education (Baccalauréat). 12% had two years of higher education, a further 20% had more than two years. It has been estimated that Muslim students form more than 10% of the students in the French Catholic schools.

Discrimination

In 2010, a study entitled Are French Muslims Discriminated Against in Their Own Country? found that "Muslims sending out resumes in hopes of a job interview had 2.5 times less chance than Christians" with similar credentials "of a positive response to their applications".

Another example is the 2004 French ban on ostentatious religious signs in public schools for minors, which forced young girls insisting on wearing the hijab in school out of public schools.

Other examples of discrimination against Muslims include the desecration of 148 French Muslim graves near Arras. A pig's head was hung from a headstone and profanities insulting Islam and Muslims were daubed on some graves. Destruction and vandalism of Muslim graves in France were seen as Islamophobic by a report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. Several of Mosques have also been vandalized in France over the years. On 14 January 2015, it was reported that 26 mosques in France had been subject to attack since the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.

On 29 June 2017, a man who had schizophrenia attempted to ram his vehicle into a crowd of worshipers exiting a mosque in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, though no one was injured. Le Parisien claims the suspect, of Armenian origin, wanted to "avenge the Bataclan and Champs-Elysées" attacks.

In 2019, the French Institute for Public Research (IFOP) conducted a study from August 29 to September 18, based on a sample of 1007 Muslims aged 15 and above. According to the study, 40% of Muslims in France felt that they were discriminated against. More than a third of these instances were recorded in the past five years, suggesting an increase in the overall mistreatment of Muslims in France over recent years. The survey found that 60% of women wearing a headscarf were subject to discrimination. 37% of Muslims in France have been a victim of verbal harassment or defamatory insults. The study, however, revealed that 44% of Muslim women who do not wear headscarves found themselves being a victim of verbal harassment or defamatory insults. The survey found that 13% of incidents of religious discrimination happened at police control points and 17% happened at job interviews. 14% of incidents occurred while the victims were looking to rent or buy accommodation. The IFOP stated that 24% of Muslims were exposed to verbal aggression during their lifetime, compared to 9% among non-Muslims. In addition, 7% of Muslims were physically attacked, compared to 3% of non-Muslims.

In 2019, according to the French Ministry of Interior, 154 anti-religious acts targeted Muslims, while those targeting Jews stood at 687, and those against Christians was 1,052. Most of these acts consisted of vandalism of "property of a religious nature."

Public opinion

A February 2017 poll of 10 000 people in 10 European countries by Chatham House found on average a majority (55%) were opposed to further Muslim immigration, with opposition especially pronounced in Austria, Poland, Hungary, France and Belgium. Except for Poland, all of those had recently suffered jihadist terror attacks or been at the center of a refugee crisis. A survey published in 2019 by the Pew Research Center found that 72% of French respondents had a favorable view of Muslims in their country, whereas 22% had an unfavourable view.

Repercussions

The 2005 French riots have been controversially interpreted as an illustration of the difficulty of integrating Muslims in France, and smaller-scale riots have been occurring throughout the 1980s and 1990s, first in Vaulx-en-Velin in 1979, and in Vénissieux in 1981, 1983, 1990 and 1999.

Furthermore, although Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy claimed that most rioters were immigrants and already known to the police, the majority were, in fact, previously unknown to the police.

In 2014, an analysis by The Washington Post showed that between 60 and 70% of the prison population in France are Muslim or come from Muslim backgrounds while Muslims constitute 12% of the population of France. The claims in this article have been refuted: the headline figure was based on research in 4 Paris and north regions prisons out of a total 188 by Professor Farhad Khosrovkhavar later said his best estimate was 40–50%, but that data is not recorded by French authorities. Statistics on ethnicity and religion are banned in France. In 2013, 18,300 (27%) of the 67,700 French prison population registered for Ramadan, an indication of their religious affiliation.

Hijab

The wearing of hijab in France has been a very controversial issue since 1989. The debate essentially concerns whether Muslim girls who choose to wear hijab may do so in state schools. A secondary issue is how to protect the free choice and other rights of young Muslim women who do not want the veil, but who may face strong pressure from families or some traditionalists. Similar issues exist for civil servants and the acceptance of male Muslim medics in medical services.

In 1994, the French Ministry for Education sent out recommendations to teachers and headmasters to ban the veil in educational institutions. According to a 2019 study by the Institute of Labor Economics, more girls with a Muslim background born after 1980 graduated from high school after the 1994 restrictions were introduced. While secularism is often criticized for restricting freedom of religion, the study suggested that "public schools ended up promoting the educational empowerment of some of the most disadvantaged groups of female students".

Leila Babes in her book The Veil Demystified, believe that wearing the veil does not derive from a Muslim religious imperative.

The French government and a large majority of public opinion are opposed to the wearing of a "conspicuous" sign of religious expression (dress or symbol), whatever the religion, as this is incompatible with the French system of laïcité. In December 2003, President Jacques Chirac said that it breaches the separation of church and state and would increase tensions in France's multicultural society, whose Muslim and Jewish populations are both the biggest of their kind in Western Europe.

The issue of Muslim hijabs has sparked controversy after several girls refused to uncover their heads in class, as early as 1989. In October 1989, three Muslim schoolgirls wearing the Islamic headscarf were expelled from the collège Gabriel-Havez in Creil (north of Paris). In November, the First Conseil d'État ruling affirmed that the wearing of the Islamic headscarf, as a symbol of freedom of religious expression, in public schools was not incompatible with the French school system and the system of laïcité. In December, a first ministerial circular (circulaire Jospin) was published, stating teachers had to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to ban the wearing of Islamic headscarves.

In January 1990, three schoolgirls were expelled from the collège Pasteur in Noyon, north of Paris. The parents of one expelled schoolgirl filed a defamation action against the principal of the collège Gabriel-Havez in Creil. As a result, the teachers of a collège in Nantua (eastern part of France, just to the west of Geneva, Switzerland) went on strike to protest the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in school. A second ministerial circular was published in October, to restate the need to respect the principle of laïcité in public schools.

In September 1994, a third ministerial circular (circulaire Bayrou) was published, making a distinction between "discreet" symbols to be tolerated in public schools, and "ostentatious" symbols, including the Islamic headscarf, to be banned from public schools. In October, some students demonstrated at the lycée Saint Exupéry in Mantes-la-Jolie (northwest of Paris) to support the freedom to wear Islamic headscarves in school. In November, approximately twenty-four veiled schoolgirls were expelled from the lycée Saint Exupéry in Mantes-la-Jolie and the lycée Faidherbe in Lille.

In December 2003, President Chirac decided that the law should prohibit the wearing of visible religious signs in schools, according to laïcité requirements. The law was approved by parliament in March 2004. Items prohibited by this law include hijabs, Jewish yarmulkes, or large Christian crosses. It is still permissible to wear discreet symbols of faith such as small crosses, Stars of David, or Fatima's hands.

Two French journalists working in Iraq, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were taken hostage by the "Islamic Army in Iraq" (an Iraqi resistance militant movement) under accusations of spying. Threats to kill the two journalists if the law on headscarves was not revoked were published on the Internet by groups claiming to be the "Islamic Army in Iraq". The two journalists were later released unharmed.

The arguments resurfaced when, on 22 June 2009, at the Congrès de Versailles, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that the Islamic burqa is not welcome in France, claiming that the full-length, body-covering gown was a symbol of subservience that suppresses women's identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen." A parliamentary commission of thirty-two deputies led by André Gerin (PCF), was also formed to study the possibility of banning the public wearing of the burqa or niqab. There is suspicion, however, that Sarkozy is "playing politics in a time of economic unhappiness and social anxiety."

A Muslim group spokesman expressed serious concern over the proposed legislation, noting that "even if they ban the burqa, it will not stop there," adding that "there is a permanent demand for legislating against Muslims. This could go really bad, and I'm scared of it. I feel like they're turning the screws on us."

On 25 January 2010 it was announced that the parliamentary committee, having concluded its study, would recommend that a ban on veils covering the face in public locations such as hospitals and schools be enacted, but not in private buildings or on the street.

In February 2019, Decathlon, Europe's largest sports retailer, announced plans to begin selling a sports hijab in their stores in France. Decathlon had begun selling the product in Morocco the previous week, but the plan was criticized on social media, with several politicians expressing discomfort with the product being sold. Decathlon originally stood firm, arguing it was focused on "democratizing" sports. The company released a statement saying its goal was to "offer them a suitable sports product, without judging." While Nike had already sold hijabs in France, Decathlon was met with much more scrutiny. Multiple salespeople were threatened physically in stores. The company also received hundreds of calls and emails in regard to the product. Decathlon was forced to backtrack and has since halted its plans to sell the sports hijab. Many throughout France were left disappointed with one Muslim entrepreneur, who didn't consider selling sport hijabs, stating, "it's a shame that Decathlon didn't stand firm."

Politics

Formal as well as informal Muslim organizations help the new French citizens to integrate. Several political parties like Parti égalité et Justice have now appeared. Their most frequent activities are homework help and language classes in Arabic, ping pong, Muslim discussion groups etc. are also common. However, most important associations active in assisting with the immigration process are either secular (GISTI, for example) or ecumenist (such as the protestant-founded Cimade).

The most important national institution is the CFCM (Conseil Français du Culte Musulman) this institution was designed on the model of the "Consistoire Juif de France" and of the "Fédération protestante de France" both Napoleonic creations. The aim of the CFCM (like its Jewish and protestant counterparts) is to discuss religious problem with the state, participate in certain public institutions, and organize the religious life of French Muslims. The CFCM is elected by the French Muslims through local election. It is the only official instance of the French Muslims.

There were four organizations represented in the CFCM elected in 2003, GMP (Grande mosquée de Paris), UOIF (Union des organizations islamiques de France), FNMF (Fédération nationale des musulmans de France) CCMTF (Comité de coordination des musulmans Turcs de France). In 2008, a new council was elected. The winner was RMF (Rassemblement des musulmans de France) with a majority of the votes, followed by the UOIF and the CCMTF. Other elections took place since then, the latest was due in 2019 but is still pending.

Other organizations exist, such as PCM (Muslim Participation and Spirituality), which combine political mobilization (against racism, sexism etc.) and spiritual meetings, and put emphasis on the need to get involved in French society – by joining organizations, registering to vote, working with your children's schools etc. They do not have clear-cut political positions as such but push for active citizenship. They are vaguely on the left in practice.

The government has yet to formulate an official policy towards making integration easier. As mentioned above, it is difficult to determine in France who may be called a Muslim. Some Muslims in France describe themselves as "non-practicing". Most simply observe Ramadan and other basic rules but are otherwise secular.

Statistics

Due to a law dating from 1872, the French Republic prohibits performing census by making distinction between its citizens regarding their race or their beliefs. However, that law does not concern surveys and polls, which are free to ask those questions if they wish. The law also allows for an exception for public institutions such as INED or INSEE whose job it is to collect data on demographics, social trends and other related subjects, on condition that the collection of such data has been authorized by the CNIL and the National Council of Statistical Information (CNIS).

Estimations based on declaration

Surveys from INED and the INSEE in October 2010 concluded that France has 2.1 million "declared Muslims".

Based on 2023 research in 2019–2020, Muslims made up 10% of the French adult population, according to INSEE.

Estimations based on people's geographic origin

In 1960, there was approximately 400,000 Muslims in France, corresponding to 0.9% of the population at the time. In 1975, the estimated number of Muslims was more than one million.

According to the French Government, which does not have the right to ask direct questions about religion and uses a criterion of people's geographic origin as a basis for calculation, there were between 3 and 3.2 million Muslims in metropolitan France in 2010. Thirteen years later, the proportion of Muslims in France rose to 10%, according to INSEE.

The government counted all those people in France who migrated from countries with a dominant Muslim population, or whose parents did.

The United States Department of State placed it at roughly 10%, while two 2007 polls estimated it at about 3% of the total population. The CIA World Factbook places it at 7–9%.

A Pew Forum study, published in January 2011, estimated 4.7 million Muslims in France in 2010 (and forecasted 6.9 million in 2030).

The French polling company IFOP estimated in 2016 that French Muslims number between 3 and 4 million and criticized suggestions of a significant demographic religious slide (the so-called Great Replacement conspiracy theory, French: grand remplacement). IFOP claims that they make up 5.6% of those older than 15, and 10% of those younger than 25. According to an IFOP survey for the newspaper La Croix in 2011, based on a combination of previous surveys, 75% of people from families "of Muslim origin" [sic] said they were believers. This is more than the previous study in 2007 (71%) but less than the one before 2001 (78%). This variation, caused by the declarative aspect of the survey, illustrates the difficulty of establishing precisely the number of believers. According to the same survey 155 of those surveyed who had at-least one Muslim parent 84.8% identified as Muslims, 3.4% identified as Christians, 10.0% identified as not religious and 1.3% belonged to other religions.

A 1999 Interior ministry source in Alain Boyer's l'Islam dans la République published the following estimated distribution of Muslims by affiliated countries:

In 2008, thirty-nine percent of Muslims surveyed by the polling group IFOP said they observed Islam's five prayers daily, a steady rise from 31 percent in 1994, according to the study published in the Catholic daily La Croix.

Mosque attendance for Friday prayers has risen to 23 percent, in 2008 up from 16 percent in 1994, while in 2008 Ramadan observance has reached 70 percent compared to 60 percent in 1994, it said. Drinking alcohol, which Islam forbids, has also declined to 34 percent from 39 percent in 1994, according to the survey of 537 people of Muslim origin.

A 2015 study found that up to 12,000 French Muslims converted to Christianity, but cited that this number may be underestimated, and it may include only Protestant converts.

According to Michèle Tribalat, a researcher at INED, an acceptance of 5 to 6 million Muslims in France in 1999 was overestimated. Her work has shown that there were 3.7 million people of "possible Muslim faith" in France in 1999 (6.3% of the total population of Metropolitan France). In 2009, she estimated that the number of people of the Muslim faith in France was about 4.5 million.

According to Jean-Paul Gourévitch, there were 8.5 million of Muslim origin (about 1/8 of the population), in metropolitan France in 2017.

In 2017, François Héran, former Head of the Population Surveys Branch at INSEE and Director of INED (French National Institute for Demographic Research) between 1999 and 2009, stated that about one eighth of the French population was of Muslim origin in 2017 (8.4 million).

According to the latest Special Eurobarometer 493 (2019) the Muslim population in France is estimated to be 5% or 3.35 million.

Pew Research Center predicts the Muslim population would rise to 8.6 million or 12.7 percent of the country in 2050 with zero immigration, and 13.2 million or 18.0 percent with high immigration.

According to a 2023 report by the INED-INSEE 91% of those who were raised in Muslim families in France follow the same religion and faith of their parents.

Converts

In 2013, The New York Times quoted Bernard Godard, a former French intelligence official specializing in Islamic affairs and back then associated with the country's Interior Ministry, who estimated France's total Muslim population to be 6 million out of which 100,000 were converts (up from 50,000 in 1986) while Muslim associations talk of 200,000.

In 2025, a Le Parisien report states that specialists such as sociologist Franck Frégosi, author of Gouverner l'islam en France (To Govern Islam in France), estimate that around 5,000 people convert to Islam in France each year, a figure derived from sociological observation rather than centralized records, and note that the trend appears to be rising compared with previous decades.

Muslim–Jewish relations

A survey by the Pew Research Center in 2006 in Germany, France, Great Britain, and Spain showed that 71% of French Muslims had a positive view of their fellow Jewish citizens, the highest percentage of positive sentiment, the only majority expressed positively among all European Muslims. A majority of Muslims in France also did not support Hamas (46% negative vs. 44% positive answers to the question: "Is Hamas' victory good for Palestinians?") and 71% of respondents did not approve of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. This Muslim-Jewish solidarity in France can be partially explained by the fact that a high percentage of both populations share origins in the Maghreb and the effects of French laïcité on vivre-ensemble (i.e "living-together") in shared civil institutional spaces which remain religiously and politically neutral for all.

French Muslims

Athletes

• Zinedine Zidane, football player
• Karim Benzema, football player
• Nicolas Anelka, football player
• Hatem Ben Arfa, football player
• Wissam Ben Yedder, football player
• N'Golo Kante, football player
• Houssem Aouar, football player
• Nabil Fekir, football player
• Mohamed Haouas, international rugby player
• Samir Nasri, football player
• Paul Pogba, football player
• Adil Rami, football player
• Swan Rebbadj, international rugby union player
• Franck Ribéry, football player
• Mamadou Sakho, football player
• Moussa Sissoko, football player
• Rabah Slimani, rugby player (both loose head and tight head prop) for Stade Français and in the French national rugby union team, highest-paid French player
• Ousmane Dembele, football player
• Benjamin Mendy, football player
• Bacary Sagna, football player
• Djibril Sidibe, football player
• Cédric Doumbé MMA fighter, convert
• Isack Hadjar, Formula 1 Driver

Arts

• Nasreddine Dinet, painter

Actors

• Brahim Achabbakhe, actor and stunt-performer
• Leïla Bekhti, award-winning film and television actress, L'Oréal ambassador
• Assaad Bouab, French-Moroccan actor of Call My Agent! fame
• Sami Bouajila, award-winning actor, recipient of two César Awards
• Rachida Brakni, award-winning actress, Comédie française member, wife of Eric Cantona
• Jamel Debbouze, award-winning actor and stand-up comedian, producer, philanthropist, husband of TV journalist and producer Mélissa Theuriau
• Kheiron, Iranian-born French comedian, actor and film director
• Sabrina Ouazani, actress of The Hook Up Plan and Games of Love and Chance fame
• Tahar Rahim, multiple César Award-winning actor, Oscars, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee
• Omar Sy, award-winning actor, first ever Black winner of the César Award for Best Actor in 2012
• Roschdy Zem, award-winning actor and director

Singers

• Kery James, Guadeloupe-born hip hop artist, convert
• Soprano
• Médine
• Booba
• Kaaris
• Sadek
• DJ Snake

Politicians

• Fadela Amara, social worker and feminist activist, former government minister
• Kader Arif, politician, former government minister and current member of the European Parliament
• Azouz Begag, Légion d'Honneur recipient, researcher in economics and sociology, former government minister
• Rachida Dati, lawyer, former Minister of Justice, current Minister of Culture
• Mounir Mahjoubi, technologist, businessman, current Secretary of State for Digital Affairs (came out as gay in 2018).
• Rama Yade, politician, former government minister.

Academics and writers

• Yasmine Belkaid, immunologist, current president of the Pasteur Institute
• Ghaleb Bencheikh, scientist
• Jean-Louis Michon, writer, translator, convert
• Louis du Couret, explorer, military officer, writer, convert
• René Guénon, author, intellectual, convert
• Roger Garaudy, author, philosopher, convert
• Christian Bonaud, author, philosopher, convert
• Éric Geoffroy, Islamologist, author, convert
• Denis Gril, Islamologist, writer, convert
• Michel Chodkiewicz, Islamogist, writer, convert
• Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Islamologist, writer, convert

Business people

• Mohed Altrad, businessman, rugby chairman, and writer
• Mourad Boudjellal, businessman, founder of Soleil Productions comic publishing and sport manager

Religious figures

• Kahina Bahloul French imam (first female imam in France) and Islamic academic, advocate for modernist reforms in Islam.
• Dalil Boubakeur, physician, rector of Great Mosque of Paris
• Si Kaddour Benghabrit, founder of the Great Mosque of Paris, WW2 resistant, interfaith helper and candidate to official title of Righteous among the Nations.

Television

• Rachid Arhab, journalist, member of Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel