For several days, a shocking poll has continued to make headlines in France. On the occasion of National Secularism Day, December 9, the secular Franco-Arab channel Elmaniya commissioned Ifop to carry out a vast survey to measure where Muslims stand on questions relating to religion and secularism. However, most of the responses illustrate the considerable gap that separates Muslims from the majority of French people on these questions.
Among the most striking results, we discovered that 78% of French Muslims aged 15 and over consider “secularism as it is applied today” to be Islamophobic and discriminatory. 44% even consider it very discriminatory. Only 11% seem to agree with its current practice. An opinion radically out of step with that of the French in general, whose polls regularly underline the desire for a tightening of the rules in this matter. Last June, a similar survey revealed that 67% of French people believed that secularism was today in danger.
Veil and abaya
It is therefore not surprising that, unlike 81% of French people, almost three out of four Muslims disapprove of the ban on wearing large traditional clothing such as the abaya at school decreed this fall by the Minister of National Education. , Gabriel Attal. Likewise, 65% of Muslims disapprove of the ban on students wearing religious symbols in public schools, such as the Islamic veil. A measure applied for almost twenty years and massively acclaimed by French people of other faiths.
In the same vein, 75% of Muslims oppose the ban on French national team athletes wearing religious symbols at the next Olympic Games. 54% also believe that young girls should be able to be exempt from swimming lessons at school for religious reasons.
One in two thinks the same thing about all courses that offend the religious beliefs of Muslims. It is therefore not surprising that, on Thursday, Muslim students from the Jacques Cartier college, in Issou in Yvelines, revolted against a teacher who, to illustrate an extract from the Metamorphoses by Ovid, showed them the painting Diana and Actaeon by Giuseppe Cesari featuring Diana and her naked nymphs.
Strengthened religiosity
One of the main revelations of this survey concerns the very strong religiosity of Muslim populations compared to other faiths. Contrary to what happens elsewhere in French society, it is paradoxically young people who are the most practicing. Thus, 66% of Muslims say they are believers and religious (practicing) compared to barely 26% of non-practicing and 3% of atheists. A portrait radically opposed to that of the rest of French society, where we only find 18% of truly practicing believers.
Even more surprising, the older Muslims get, the less attached they seem to religious practice. This is much more pronounced among those aged 25 to 34 (75%) and those under 25 (72%) than among those aged 35 to 49 (60%) or those aged 50 and over (58%). Likewise, contrary to what one might imagine, the more educated French Muslims are, the more they adhere to a rigorous practice of Islam. They represent 77% of those who have completed second and third cycle university studies, while they represent only 63% of those who have not gone beyond the first cycle and 53% of those who have not gone beyond the high school. Likewise, we note a more intense religiosity among executives and professionals (74%) than among workers (65%).
The vast majority of French Muslims also declare that Islam has a significant influence on their food choices (85%), their way of dressing (63%), their political life (51%) and even the choice of their friends (47%). 75% of them believe that Islam is “the only true religion” even if, among them, a little more than half think that other religions can contain truths. Here again, this support is stronger among those under 25 (83%) and those aged 24 to 34 (78%) than among those aged 50 and over (62%).
Three out of four Muslims (76%) go so far as to decide in favor of religion rather than science when it comes to explaining the “creation of the world”. Again, 25-34 year olds (79%) trust religion more than those over 50 (66%).
Terrorism
Barely two months after the assassination of teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras by an Islamist terrorist, a large majority of respondents (78%) say they “totally condemn” this gesture. A figure nevertheless lower than that of the French in general (91%). This rejection is also more nuanced in certain parts of the Muslim population. Among young people who are currently in school, we still find 31% of respondents who do not express “total condemnation of the author of the attack”. Among them, 8% do not condemn him at all, the rest saying they “share some of his motivations”.
The Ifop survey was conducted online from November 21 to 29 with a sample of 1,002 people representative of the Muslim population living in mainland France aged 15 and over.