What will Islam in France look like in 2025? A study* from Ifop, published Tuesday November 18, reports a “revitalization” Islam in the country. However, accompanied by a “worrying about the development of adherence to Islamist theses”especially among the youngest. This research was commissioned by Screen savermagazine that brings together, among others, former journalists from Marianneand the summary is chiefly intended to denounce “Muslim Entryism”.
Contacted by franceinfo, vice president of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), Ibrahim Alci, “take note” from this result. However, he called “Be careful with amalgam” in reading research.
“The reality observed through a survey of 1,000 Muslims in France cannot be projected to all Muslims.”
Ibrahim Alci, one of the presidents of the French Muslim Council of Worshipat franceinfo
The 60-page document lists progress “slow but steady” from “proportion of Muslims in the adult population of France”. Today the number stands at 7% compared with 0.5% in 1985. Ifop notes that the racist thesis of a “massive replacement” of France’s so-called “native” population by a Muslim population, promoted especially by right-wing groups, cannot be verified.
Islam knows “trajectory of religious revitalization” in France, not like Catholicism, but like evangelical Protestantism, underlines this research. The degree of religiosity of Muslims is higher than followers of other religions. Nearly eight in ten Muslims say they feel “somewhat religious,” “very religious,” or even “very religious,” compared with an average of one in two people who practice other religions. The religious practices and worship of Muslims have also increased in recent decades. Therefore, the number of daily prayer rituals increases between 1989 (41%) and 2025 (62%), especially among young people under 25 years old (67%). Fasting throughout the month of Ramadan is also very popular (73% in 2025, compared to 60% in 1989), especially among young people (83% of 18-24 year olds).
Therefore, Ifop notes that some young Muslims are experiencing the process “religious reaffiliation” own “traditionalist Islam”. CFCM vice president, Ibrahim Alci, saw the revival of this religion “positive trend”. He believes that “As long as believers persist in living their faith without disturbing anyone”they just take advantage “their personal freedom”. In his note, Ifop also emphasized that this is not an exception for Muslims: “Young believers, all religions combined, also show more frequent and regular practice” than older people.
This significant level of religiosity is accompanied by “implementation of gender separatism” Who is “far from marginal”and this “violates the moral liberalism dominant in the West”. In fact, more than four in ten Muslims (43%) reject at least one form of physical or visual contact with the opposite sex. In detail, one in three (33%) refuse to kiss the opposite sex, 14% refuse to shake hands. At any time, more women than men reject this contact. Again, these figures are higher among young Muslims. Regarding this, said Ibrahim Alci “surprised” the agency’s results, while acknowledging that such situations do exist. Only Muslims were asked these questions in this study.
In addition, wearing the veil has become commonplace among young people, although it is still a minority. Nearly one in two Muslim women aged 18 to 24 wear the niqab today (45%), or almost three times as many as in 2003 (16%), the year that saw debate over banning the niqab in schools. Therefore, this institution believes that this “separatism” occurred “by the strictest groups of Muslim society”register “perhaps in the dynamics of identity reaffirmation”. Separatist practices “serves as a marker of distinction in a society considered hostile or assimilative” towards Muslims. Therefore, if wearing the niqab is a response to religious injunctions (80%), and a need for protection in public spaces (44% say they wear it to “not attract male attention”), it also shows pride in identity (38% wear it to show “their belonging to their religion”).
The Institute also notes that the desire of Muslims in France to live in a society in accordance with the principles of Islamic law continues, or even grows, despite the separation between Church and State that has been in place since 1905. Thus, a greater number of Muslims than before (44% in 2025, 28% in 1995) estimate that, with regard to arbitration on “important” matters, they prefer to respect religious law rather than the law. France, if they had to “choose” between the two. This question is not addressed to followers of other religions, and it is difficult to determine an exception for Muslims in this regard.
Additionally, less than one in two Muslims (46%) believe that Islamic law should be applied, in any country, including 15% “completely” and 31% “partially”, by adapting it to the rules of the country in question. However this proportion was higher in 2008, when more than half (54%) of Muslims supported its implementation, at least in part. Also called sharia, Islamic law “is a set of religious, moral and legal principles taken from the Koran, the words of the Prophet and the interpretations of scholars”details of Ibrahim Alci. “Those are religious ideals, but what is the problem is the extremist interpretation of sharia”he added. The question asked by Ifop did not specify the meaning of the word “syariah” that the respondent meant.
“This data (on the desire to implement sharia law) provides food for thought for those who worry that the Muslim population is developing in a ‘counter-societal’ logic.”
If it failsin publication on its website, November 18, 2025
Meanwhile, the CFCM vice president believes that believers should practice this “personal aspects of sharia” (prayer, fasting, alms to the poor, etc.) but this is not included in Islamic law “the law in force in France”.
Apart from these results, Ifop noted several things “receiving ideas” in Muslim populations is considered a “gated community” is “question” by studying. Thus, more and more Muslims believe that members of their religion have the right to break with Islam (73% in 2025, compared to 44% in 1989). Another visible sign of openness is that they are less likely to be in relationships with partners of the same religion than people of other religions (73%, compared to 80%).
Finally, Ifop underlines that Islamist ideas, which want to make Islam a political project, are increasingly gaining ground among the Muslim population, but remain a minority. Nearly four in ten Muslims (38%) endorse all or some of the “Islamist” position in 2025, twice as many as those who held the “fundamentalist” position some thirty years ago (19% in 1998). Once again, more young people than older generations have the same preference (42% of the 15-24 year old group and 43% of the 25-34 year old group agree with all or part of the Islamic group’s position).
Among Islamic movements, the Muslim Brotherhood inspired both sympathy and hostility (24% each) among respondents. Much larger gaps exist for Salafism (28% hostility, 9% sympathy) and jihadism (52% hostility, 3% sympathy). In conclusion, this study questions the reversibility of these dynamics “re-Islamization” of the Muslim population, “structured around strict religious norms and increasingly seduced by the political project of Islam”. Ifop currently estimates that “Nothing seems to be able to stop this process.” In this case, Ibrahim Alci believes that the fight against extremism must involve funding “A training institution worthy of the name of French priests, with a common core of secularism and a republican framework.”
* The Ifop study for Ecran de Eve magazine was conducted by telephone from 8 August to 2 September 2025 with a sample of 1,005 people of the Muslim faith, taken from a nationally representative sample of 14,244 people aged 15 years and over who live in mainland France.
