The month of fasting and prayers for Muslims will start on Saturday in France

Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayers and sharing for Muslims, will begin on Saturday March 1 in France, announced on Friday, February 29, the great mosque of Paris (GMP) by the voice of its rector.

“The Muslim Federations of France (…) gathered today at the Great Mosque in Paris are happy to confirm that the blessed month of Ramadan 1446-2025 will start in France on Saturday March 1, 2025”announced the rector, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, reading a press release during a ceremony broadcast on X (ex-Twitter).

Ramadan’s Muslim fasting will also start on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, which houses two of the most holy sites in Islam, as well as in other Gulf states, the authorities of these countries announced on Friday. The beginning of Ramadan is determined by the appearance of the first crescent moon, the Muslim calendar being lunar.

During Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam, believers are invited to refrain from drinking, eating, smoking and having sex, dawn (as soon as we can “Distinguish a white thread from a black thread” said the Koran) to the sunset.

Ramadan is the period when important donations are granted to mosques and prayer rooms (around 2,500 in France). Muslims are invited to pay an alms for the poor, the Zakât El-Fitr.

Monitoring by 70 % of believers

“Ramadan is increasingly followed” “ by the faithful, said the rector of the Great Mosque in an interview with Parisian Friday. “We assess them at 70 % of believers”according to him, even if “Precise statistics do not exist”.

The Muslim Federations of France call, in the press release read by Chems-Eddine Hafiz, “The authorities to guarantee the safety of mosques, prayer rooms and all Muslim places of worship during this important period for all Muslims in France”.

They also want this “Blessed months can intensify solidarity and offer appeasement and unity between the different components of the national community”.

In a separate message, the rector of the Great Mosque in Paris wanted the community to have a “Pious thought for all those who suffer, and in particular those who are today in Gaza, who have been suffering for more than a year now”. After mentioning that its inhabitants “Do not live in normal conditions”he hoped that “Authorities around the world can find a solution so that finally the Palestinian people can live in safe borders, with a sure state”.

France has between five and six million practicing and non-chart Muslims, according to several studies on the subject (Pew Research Center, Institut Montaigne, Insee, INEEE, INED), which makes Islam the second religion of the country and the French Muslim community the first in Europe.