a majority of French Muslims consider its application “discriminatory”

Does the practice of secularism discriminate against Muslims? This is the opinion of a majority of Muslims, according to an Ifop poll published Friday December 8 ahead of Secularism Day marking the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State. According to this study carried out among French Muslims for Elmaniya.tv, the new secular Franco-Arab channel, 78% of them believe that “secularism as it is applied today by public authorities is discriminatory against Muslims”.

Furthermore, three quarters of French Muslims want a return to the concordat regime applied in France until the passing of the 1905 law: 75% of them saying they are in favor of “public financing of places of worship and religious people of the main religions (e.g. priests, popes, rabbis, imams, etc.) as is the case in Alsace-Moselle for certain religions.

Opposition to the 2004 law

Other demands involve the repeal of measures preventing the clothing expression of their religion in public spaces. They therefore overwhelmingly support the right of French athletes to wear religious head coverings at the next Olympic Games in France (75%).

Nearly 20 years after its application, French Muslims are still overwhelmingly opposed to the 2004 law banning conspicuous religious symbols in schools. In fact, two thirds of them (65%) say they are in favor of wearing religious head coverings (e.g. veil, yarmulke, etc.) in public middle and high schools.

Muslims also overwhelmingly support other forms of manifestations of religiosity in the school space such as the wearing of religious symbols by accompanying parents carrying out teaching activities (75%) or the introduction of menus of a confessional nature (e.g. : halal meat, kosher meat, etc.) in the canteen (83%).

Finally, about half of them also support a discount questioning the principle of religious neutrality at the heart of the teachings, claiming for example the right of young girls “not to attend swimming lessons for religious reasons” (at 57%) or students at “not attend classes whose content would offend their religious beliefs” (at 50%).

Ban on abayas with little support

If the ban on abayas announced at the start of the school year was the subject of near consensus among the general population (81% of French people approve of this ban), few Muslims (28%) support the new minister’s decision. of national education.

Their particular relationship to secularism does not prevent most Muslims (78%) from completely condemning the murderer of Dominique Bernard in Arras. But people who do not express total condemnation of the assassin are three times more numerous among the ranks of Muslims (16%) than among French people as a whole (5%), particularly among students currently enrolled in education. secondary or higher (31%).

Another study by the Kantar Institute, published on November 30, showed that 60% of young people aged 18 to 30 agree with the following statement: “the defense of secularism is exploited by political figures and journalists who actually want to denigrate Muslims”.

The Ifop study for Elmaniya.tv, a secular Franco-Arab channel, was carried out from November 21 to 29 by self-administered online questionnaire with a sample of 1,002 people, representative of the Muslim population living in France. metropolitan aged 15 and over.

The Kantar Public survey for LACES (University of Bordeaux) and the GSLR, a research laboratory of the CNRS and the École Pratique des Hautes Études, with the support of the Institut universitaire de France, was carried out from 14 to June 16, 2023 with a sample of 1,000 young people aged 18 to 30, representative of the population of 18-30 year olds in France.