A recent Ifop survey for the magazine Écran de veille, published on Tuesday, November 18, highlights a strong Islamist appeal among the younger Muslim generation in France. The study spans more than 60 pages and shows that since 1989, both strict religious practice and sympathy for radical forms of Islam have significantly grown among young French Muslims.
In the past 40 years, the proportion of Muslims in the French population has risen from 0.5% to 7%, while the share of Catholics has fallen from 83% to 43%. Islam is now the second-largest religion in the country, ahead of Protestantism (4%). This demographic rise goes hand in hand with a marked increase in religiosity: 80% of Muslims in France describe themselves as religious, and nearly two-thirds say they pray daily, compared to a national average of 18%.
Young Muslims are also far more observant than their elders. Over 36 years, mosque attendance among those under 25 has risen from 7% to 40%. Strict observance of Ramadan within this group has soared from 51% to 83%. The wearing of the hijab has also tripled since 2003, rising from 16% to 45% among young Muslim women.
This intensification of religious practice is accompanied by a notable rise in radical sympathies. 42% of young Muslims say they feel sympathetic toward Islamists, compared to 29% in 1998. Support for Sharia law has also increased: 57% of 15-24-year-olds believe French law is “less important” than Islamic law. Meanwhile, 38% of French Muslims approve of “all or part” of Islamist positions in the country—double the number in 1998. The poll finds that 24% express sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood, 9% for Salafism, and 3% for Jihadism.
Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly, reacted quickly to the survey, criticizing the far left’s stance on the issue:
This poll is a wake-up call. And while these excesses are progressing, the far left, for purely electoral opportunistic reasons, prefers to look the other way.
MEP Marion Maréchal (Identité Libertés/ECR) declared on X:
The terrifying results of the Ifop/Écran de Veille poll released this Tuesday foreshadow a jihadist war on our soil if this blindness continues.
Beyond the survey itself, the rise of sympathy—especially for the Muslim Brotherhood—represents a particular threat because the organization advances its goals through long-term ideological influence rather than open confrontation. Its strategy relies on gradual social pressure, the promotion of religious norms over republican law, and the cultivation of a young, highly committed base receptive to political Islam.
This growing ideological foothold only reinforces criticism toward the government for its inaction. Rassemblement National MP Edwige Diaz also criticized the government for failing to act, noting that Marine Le Pen already in 2021 proposed legislation aimed at combating Islamist ideology.
