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Muslims in France constitute one of the country’s most prominent pillars. Islam is considered the nation’s second religion, and the Muslim community in this European country has become one of the most high-profile issues to dominate attention in recent years, given the systematic targeting it has faced amid the rise of hate speech and the package of decisions and measures adopted by President Emmanuel Macron, which some interpreted as an overt bid to court the far right at Muslims’ expense.
Muslims in France
Although the French Constitution prohibits counting the population according to ethnic or religious affiliation, unofficial estimates indicate that the Muslim minority there exceeds 5.5 million people, making up more than 8% of the total population. That is the figure cited by then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in 2003, and it has remained unchanged to this day, serving as a quasi-official reference point.
France is one of the European countries with the longest historical contact with Muslim societies, owing to its long colonial trajectory, in which Islamic countries bore the brunt. That makes any discussion of the relationship between Islam and its followers on one side, and France and its ruling systems on the other, a deeply fraught one, because it summons a bitter history, a near-daily struggle with a harsh reality, and anxious anticipation of an uncertain future.
How Islam entered France
France’s acquaintance with Islam dates back to the eighth century CE, making it one of the oldest European countries to which Islam spread through one of its extended frontiers. Historically, Muslim settlement in France can be divided into two periods, which later helped entrench the foundations of the country’s Muslim minority and expanded the Western state’s sphere of influence inside Muslim lands.
The first phase began with the campaign led by the Muslim commander Tariq ibn Ziyad in 715 CE/96 AH into several European cities, such as Tortosa and Barcelona, reaching the Rhone River (today’s Rhone, which rises in Switzerland and empties into southeastern France over a total length of 812 kilometers).
Islamic expansion then came through the Andalusians in the third Hijri century, when Muslim sailors seized the city of Nice and established full control over France’s southern coasts, along with some cities in Switzerland and the island of Corsica.
Despite the difficulties the French authorities faced at the time in persuading Muslims to travel to its territory, the state practiced the most brutal forms of abuse by introducing compulsory laws forcing travel and movement, with death as the price of refusal
The second phase can be said to have begun after World War I (1914-1918). After France consolidated control over several Muslim countries, foremost among them Algeria, it began recruiting Muslim laborers and transporting them to Paris to rebuild the devastation of war and reconstruct the state.
Despite the difficulties the French authorities faced at the time in persuading Muslims to travel to its territory, the state practiced the most brutal forms of abuse by introducing compulsory laws forcing travel and movement, with death as the price of refusal. In return, hundreds of Algerians who refused to submit to the French will and work for them as “slaves and servants” were killed.
Year after year, waves of Arabs and Muslims began traveling to France and Europe more broadly, especially after those countries opened their doors to foreign labor and the prospect of a better material life there, encouraging many Muslims from poor countries to leave their homelands and head West in search of higher incomes.
Gradually, work visits turned into semi-permanent residence and then permanent settlement. People began thinking about obtaining French citizenship and building a fully integrated life, accompanied by a relative separation and detachment from their former lives in their Arab and Muslim countries, until France became the primary homeland for many later generations, especially the third and fourth.
The crisis of the actual count
One of the biggest challenges facing Muslims in France, and those concerned with minority issues more broadly, is the absence of an official count of their true numbers. Article 1 of the French Constitution, issued in 1958 and amended in 2008, states that “France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. It shall respect all beliefs. It shall be organized on a decentralized basis.” Accordingly, the state does not rely on any statistics based on religion or ethnicity.
As a result, all estimates regarding the number of Muslims are no more than approximations based on a number of indicators, and they vary from one source to another. While Nicolas Sarkozy put the number at 5 million in 2005, the Pew Research Center estimated it at about 5.7 million in 2016, or 8.8% of the population.
Some French elites have cast doubt on those figures, noting that the actual number is far higher. A number of researchers at the French National Center for Scientific Research and far-right parties have likewise suggested that the figure ranges between 15 and 20 million, or 22% to 30% of the population.
There is no fixed standard for verifying the accuracy of these figures. Still, the estimates most commonly circulated in the media and relied on by many research and study centers concerned with reading France’s demographic map tend to place Muslims at between 8% and 9% of the total French population.
Algerians top the list in France’s Muslim minority, making up 35% of the total Muslim population, followed by Moroccans at 25% and Tunisians at 10%, in addition to the sizable Turkish community, alongside other origins from Egypt, Libya and a number of African countries.
Political and social engagement
There are many associations and social and religious entities representing Muslims in France, trying as much as possible to narrow the gaps among different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, especially amid the widening divide among affiliations and currents within the Muslim fabric itself in the European state.
At the forefront of these entities are the “Islamic Institute” and the “Grand Mosque of Paris,” inaugurated in 1926. The mosque has become a focal point for Muslims, especially in the capital, because of its considerable weight as a representative of moderate Islam there, far from the pull of relatively hardline currents. That is why it enjoys standing with the country’s official authorities.
Muslims also have several political entities with an Islamic character, founded primarily to serve Muslims and spread the faith within French society
There is also the “Union of Islamic Organizations,” which runs many schools and associations and provides social and educational services to Muslims. It also seeks to advance the welfare of youth and children and raise them on religious foundations. Although some consider the union an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, it provides its services to the entire Muslim community without discrimination or emphasis on any political discourse of any kind.
Among the most active entities in the European country is the “National Federation of Muslims of France,” founded in 1985 under the sponsorship of the Muslim World League. It now includes more than 150 subsidiary associations, in addition to the Tablighi Jamaat and two other groups representing the Turkish community, one of which is overseen by the Turkish Embassy.
Politically, despite constitutional restrictions on establishing parties on sectarian grounds, Muslims do have some political entities with an Islamic character, founded primarily to serve Muslims and spread the faith within French society, as well as to elevate the community religiously, academically and culturally.
Among the most prominent of these parties are French and Muslims and the Equality and Justice Party. Both were founded in 2015 and had a strong presence in the 2017 elections, fielding a number of Muslim candidates, including hijab-wearing women. They call for amendments to the secularism law and for granting Muslims special distinctions in legislation. This is in addition to the Union of French Muslim Democrats, established by Najib Azergui in 2012.
Integration: A success, but …
The early settlement of the first generations in France helped later generations integrate, especially the third and fourth generations, who came to regard the European state as their homeland, particularly after obtaining citizenship and residency. They became French citizens with the full rights and duties enjoyed by native French people.
Members of the community there were keen to learn French, easing the obstacles to integration, in addition to enrolling in French schools. While Islamic education for Muslim children had previously posed a problem, the situation has recently seen some flexibility and movement that have made things easier.
In the past, there were Islamic schools and kuttabs affiliated with mosques that were not officially recognized, and it was impossible to obtain certified diplomas from them that could help in finding work anywhere. But in recent years, French authorities have begun accrediting some schools that teach the Islamic curriculum, such as the opening of several Islamic high schools in major cities, in addition to higher education institutes such as the European Institute of Human Sciences, founded in 1992, which includes departments specializing in Islamic law and the foundations of religion.
What distinguishes Muslims in France is that they are citizens more than they are a religious group. This has been one of the dilemmas the far right in Europe more broadly uses to target the Muslim community, portraying it as more of an organized collective than a varied set of individuals and non-ideological citizens. Muslim presence spans all French cities and includes rightists, centrists and leftists, rich and poor, and people of varying educational levels. All of this has helped integration.
This diversity should not be understood as a decline in religious commitment. The majority are keen to perform religious rituals, which become more visible during occasions such as Ramadan and the holidays, in addition to the forms of relative solidarity provided by Islamic and charitable associations spread among Muslims there.
Despite this cultural and social richness, which confirms that there is no singular French Islamic identity with specific goals and agendas, some French elites still view the Muslim minority as a threat to the French nation. As a result, targeting and restrictions have not been limited to far-right currents alone, but have reached the top of power in the country, all the way to President Emmanuel Macron himself.
Systematic targeting
Over the past four years, Muslims have been subjected to successive waves of systematic targeting through a package of decisions and laws that require little effort to show they are aimed at tightening the noose around the Muslim minority in favor of the far right, which President Macron has courted to compensate for his declining popularity due to his failure to manage domestic economic issues.
The law is an extension of a package of other laws adopted by Paris to diminish the weight of the Muslim community in the country
Perhaps the latest of these authoritarian policies was the French Parliament’s vote in July 2021 on a bill tightening restrictions on Muslims by increasing oversight of mosques and charitable associations and imposing constraints on Islamic education and the freedom to choose doctors and teachers, under the pretext of targeting “separatism” in the country. Despite the strong opposition the law faced, Macron insisted on it in a way that raised many doubts.
The law is an extension of a package of other laws adopted by Paris to diminish the weight of the Muslim community in the country, including the 2004 law banning religious rituals in schools and its 2010 counterpart banning the niqab in public places, in addition to other decisions that greatly provoked Muslims over the past years.
In October 2020, Macron made remarks described as “disgusting,” saying that “Islam is today in crisis everywhere in the world, and France must confront Islamic separatism that seeks to establish a parallel order and deny the French Republic.”
Those remarks came amid the unveiling of the president’s plan to intensify the fight against what he called “Islamic separatism in neighborhoods,” which he defined through five main axes, most notably freeing schools and mosques from foreign influence and ending the country’s reliance on preachers arriving from abroad who receive salaries from grants and aid sent by Muslim countries to their communities, especially Turkey and Algeria.
Then came the launch of what became known as the “Forum of Islam in France,” an alternative body to the “French Council of the Muslim Faith,” which was established in 2003 to represent Muslim communities and serve as the official spokesperson for Muslims before the French authorities. It revealed Macron’s true face in his attempt to domesticate Islam in the French mold.
Racism against Muslims
Dark beginnings cannot possibly produce bright outcomes, as logicians say. As a logical result of the escalating hate speech since 2015, rates of racist crimes targeting Muslims have surged sharply, something that can be seen in the figures and reports issued on the matter.
In a statement issued by the “National Observatory Against Islamophobia” in France in January 2021, the group reported 235 attacks against Muslims in 2020, compared with 154 in 2019, representing an increase of 53%, in addition to a 35% rise in attacks on mosques compared with 2019.
According to other estimates by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the numbers are steadily increasing, and Europe should be concerned about the discourse adopted by the French government, which is heavily influenced by the far right. This could deepen divisions within society and threaten its stability and cohesion.
In its report issued this year, the “Collective Against Islamophobia” in France revealed a 77% increase in attacks against Muslims during 2017-2019, documenting about 789 acts falling under the umbrella of hatred against Muslims in 2019.
Notably, 59% of those acts classified as racist crimes were committed by government institutions, a matter that has alarmed Muslims and pushed many of them to leave … even if quietly.
A quiet departure
On Feb. 13, 2022, The New York Times published a report titled “A Quiet Exodus for France’s Muslims,” examining dozens of cases of Muslims who secretly left France to escape the abuses they face at the hands of right-wingers amid the recent rise in hate speech.
The report revealed that French Muslims who fled to Britain since 2016 created a Facebook group that now has 2,500 members, most of them young people who were forced to leave the country whose citizenship they hold because of the persecution they face due to their religion and Muslim identity.
What the report described aligns with dozens of firsthand testimonies from French and European individuals about cases of collective flight from France to some European countries in search of a better life and a society that does not oppress them because of their beards or hijab, and does not close the door to jobs in their faces for no reason other than that they are Muslims.
Thus, France has shifted from a country that long prided itself on presenting itself as a pluralistic, civilized nation that embraces everyone into a place that repels its own people and forcefully drives them toward emigration. Many French thinkers and analysts have warned of this phenomenon, describing what is happening as France burning itself with a policy that must stop immediately.
Challenges and obstacles
Muslims in France face many challenges, chief among them the escalating hate speech that has fueled the rise of racist crimes and targeting on religious grounds, as indicated by reports issued by the “National Observatory Against Islamophobia” in France, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), and other security and rights indicators that reveal the consequences of this populist discourse and stand in the way of efforts at social integration.
This comes alongside the lack of Muslim unity and the absence of a unified leadership, which disperses their efforts despite positive interpretations of this challenge, which some may read as a strong indicator of the success of integration efforts.
This is in addition to their being dragged in as a political card in elections and disputes among the country’s political currents, between the right and the far right. This is what Bekir Altas, secretary-general of the “National Vision League of the Muslim Community” in France, pointed to when he told Anadolu: “The current climate surrounding Muslims in France has become worrying and dangerous,” expressing hope that Muslims would not be exploited as a tool in the political struggle among rivals in electoral marathons.
The future of the Muslim minority in France remains subject to speculation and the absence of a comprehensive vision. Despite Marine Le Pen’s defeat in the latest elections, Emmanuel Macron’s victory does not represent the hope the community seeks
Altas warned against treating the Muslim minority as a tool of propaganda pressure, whether through temporary courting to win their voting bloc on one hand, or through outbidding against them to please the far right in order to secure its support in the electoral race on the other, something that was clearly visible in the elections held just days ago.
While the state does not interfere in the internal affairs of other religious groups, by virtue of the Constitution and in accordance with the principle of secularism adopted by Paris, it clearly intervenes in Islamic affairs, choosing imams for Muslims and interfering in defining their identity, the subjects they study and the religious discourse presented, which constitutes a violation of the country’s official Constitution, according to the secretary-general of the “National Vision League of the Muslim Community.”
Meanwhile, Omar Lasfar, head of the “Union of Islamic Organizations” in France, said that the Muslim presence in France has gone through several major stages over the past 40 years, all of which confirmed society’s general comfort with the Islamic presence. But there is a very small minority that always wants Islam to be a source of anxiety and threat, in reference to the far right and some Islamic fundamentalists, as he explained during his appearance on the May 3, 2017 episode of Al Jazeera’s “Without Borders,” which hosted four leaders of Islamic activism in Europe to discuss the challenges facing Europe’s Muslims and their impact on European societies.
He suggested that Islamophobia as a phenomenon is more widespread among politicians than among ordinary citizens, outlining three main challenges facing Muslims, foremost among them preserving Islamic identity amid systematic targeting and doubt cast by populists, helping Muslims in European societies generally move from the stage of migration to the stage of citizenship, and finally enabling Muslims to attain sources of strength and spread goodness among the different segments of French society.
Ultimately, the future of the Muslim minority in France remains subject to speculation and the absence of a comprehensive vision. Despite Marine Le Pen’s defeat in the latest elections, Emmanuel Macron’s victory does not represent the hope the community seeks, as the experiences that marked the relationship between Muslims and Macron during his first term only heighten the sense of vigilance and anxiety about what lies ahead.