A detailed study by the prestigious polling service Ifop shows that hardline views are growing amongst Muslims in France, including an emphasis on the laws of Islam being placed over those of the state, particularly among young Muslims. At the same time, Christianity is collapsing in France.

Among Muslims in general, 44 percent polled say they “respect the rules of Islam” as being more important “than respect for French laws.” For those aged 15-24, 57 percent believe the rules of Islam are more important than “respect for French laws.”

These numbers are truly astounding, and show that despite claims from the left, there are millions of Muslims in France who do not respect the laws of the country and have a more hardline vision of Islam.

When it comes to Sharia law, fewer Muslims are supportive of this concept, but the overall numbers are still concerning.

Slightly less than one in six Muslims (15%) interviewed in France are convinced that “Sharia law must be applied in its entirety, regardless of the country in which one lives.” Considering there are approximately 6 million Muslims in France, that amounts to 1 million people.

Once again, 15-24 year olds are more radical than average, with 21 percent agreeing that Sharia law should be applied in France.

At the same time, Catholics are disappearing from the country. The poll shows the proportion of respondents who identify as Catholic has collapsed from 83 percent in 1985 to 43 percent today. They are falling into the category of those “without religion,” which increased from 13 percent in 1985 to 37 percent in 2025.

Compared to the entire French population, the proportion of respondents who declared themselves Muslim increased sevenfold between 1985 and 2025, from 1 percent to 7 percent, confirming that “Islam remains in the minority in our country.”

As Le Point writes while reporting on the polling results, the data “provides an inventory of the relationship French residents have with religion and Muslims. The findings confirm trends from previous surveys: The Muslim community is living its beliefs with increasing intensity, particularly among young people. In the event of a conflict between faith and law, young Muslims would mainly prioritize Islam over the laws of the Republic and over science.”

France, which styles itself as a secular country, also features a growing religious fundamentalist group. The 15-24 age group for Muslims is particularly concerning, with 81 percent placing the Quran above science in explaining the origins of the world, according to Ifop. Overall, 65 percent of Muslims hold this view compared to only 19 percent for followers of other religions, who believe their religions better explain the origins of the world than science.

In many ways, the polling shows that Muslims in France are even becoming more conservative, despite claims that integration would only improve with time.

The study resonates as an observation of “painful integration failure.” Muslims whose fathers were born in France are much more often Islamist sympathizers on at least part of the program (51 percent) than those whose father was born in the Maghreb (32 percent). Similarly, French people by birth adhere to the Brotherhood twice as much as French people by acquisition, amounting to 35 percent compared to 18 percent.

Some 38 percent of French Muslims approve of all or part of Islamist positions, doubling the figure of 19 percent in 1998, underlines Ifop.

Correspondingly, the share of Muslims who want Islam to modernize has fallen from 48 percent in 1998 to 21 percent today. When Ifop requested respondents to choose between the Civil Code and Sharia law on “an important subject in your family, such as ritual slaughter, marriage or inheritance,” 49 percent of Muslims chose to respect French laws, down from 62 percent in 1995. The consumption of alcohol among Muslim men has also fallen sharply, from 46 percent in 1989 to only 26 percent today.

Today, 33 percent of Muslims residing in France — French citizens or foreign nationals — feel sympathy for one of the Islamist movements, a figure that rises to 42 percent among young people. Within this population, 3 percent have sympathy for the most radical and bloody ideology, jihadism.

There are two ways of looking at this result, with Le Point noting that optimists will say this only represents 0.21 percent of the French population, while pessimists will say this represents a recruiting pool of 142,000 supporters in France.

Notably, given the potential security concerns around jihadism, it is also possible this result is underreported, due to the “shy polling” effect, where polling respondents are afraid to voice support or opposition to different polling questions out of fear.

When it comes to groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, 23 percent of French Muslims voice sympathy for the group.

The Ifop study for the journal Screen Saver was carried out by telephone from Aug. 8 to Sept. 2, 2025, using a sample of 1,005 people of the Muslim religion, drawn from a nationally representative sample of 14,244 people aged 15 and over residing in mainland France.

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