 
Islam is a minority religion in France that is followed by around 3 million to 5.7 million people in France, which is around 4% to 10% of the nation's population.
In 2023, Muslims made up 10% of the French adult population, according to INSEE. 
France's Muslim population grew starting in the second half of the 20th century, following immigration from former French colonies and protectorates in Africa and the Middle East.
The majority of Muslims in France belong to the Sunni denomination and are of foreign origins. Sizeable minorities of Shia and non-denominational Muslims also exist. The French overseas region of Mayotte has a majority Muslim population.
According to a survey in which 536 people of Muslim origin participated, 39% of Muslims in France surveyed by the polling group IFOP said they observed Islam's five prayers daily in 2008, a steady rise from 31% in 1994, according to the study published in the Catholic daily "La Croix". Mosque attendance for Friday prayers has risen to 23% in 2008, up from 16% in 1994, while Ramadan observance has reached 70% in 2008 compared to 60% in 1994. Alcohol consumption also declined from 39% to 34%.
History.
Early history.
During the conquest of Iberia and the conquest of Gaul, the Umayyad forces would conquer and annex the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula and modern day southern France. Though they would eventually withdraw in 732 AD. However, Septimania remained under Umayyad dominance until 759. During a later battle, the Al Andalusians established the fortress Fraxinetum.
In 838, the "Annales Bertiniani" record that Muslims raided Marseille in southern France, plundered its religious houses and took captive both men and women, clerical and lay, as slaves. In 842, the "Annales" report a raid in the vicinity of Arles. In 869, raiders returned to Arles and captured the archbishop, Roland. They accepted a ransom in return for the archbishop, but when they handed him over he was already dead. The construction of a castle in the Camargue following these raids up the Rhône may have induced raiders to try points further east, culminating in the establishment of a permanent base of operations at Fraxinetum. In 887, Muslim forces from Al-Andalus conquered several bases in France and established the emirate of Fraxinet. They were eventually defeated and expelled in 975.
During the winter of 1543–1544, after the siege of Nice, Toulon was used as an Ottoman naval base under admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa. The Christian population was temporarily evacuated, and Toulon Cathedral was briefly converted into a mosque until the Ottomans' departure.
After the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614, about 50,000 Moriscos entered France, according to the research of Henri Lapeyre.
1960-1970s labor immigration.
Muslim immigration, mostly male, was high in the late 1960s and 1970s. These immigrants mostly hailed from Algeria and other former French colonies in North Africa; however, Islam has had an older history in France, since the Great Mosque of Paris was built in 1922, as a sign of recognition from the French Republic to the fallen Muslim "tirailleurs" mainly coming from Algeria, in particular at the battle of Verdun and the takeover of the Douaumont fort.
French Council of the Muslim Faith.
Though the French State is secular, in recent years the government has tried to organize a representation of French Muslims. In 2002, the then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy initiated the creation of a "French Council of the Muslim Faith" ("Conseil Français du Culte Musulman" – CFCM), though wide criticism claimed this would only encourage communitarianism. Though the CFCM is informally recognized by the national government, it is a private nonprofit association with no special legal status. As of 2004[ [update]], it is headed by the rector of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur – who harshly criticized the controversial Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF) for involving itself in political matters during the 2005 riots. Sarkozy's views on "laïcité" have been widely criticized by left- and right-wing members of parliament; more specifically, he was accused, during the creation of the CFCM, of favoring the more extreme sectors of Muslim representation in the Council, in particular the UOIF.
Second generation immigrants.
The first generation of Muslim immigrants, who are today mostly retired from the workforce, kept strong ties with their countries, where their families lived. In 1976, the government passed a law allowing families of these immigrants to settle in France. Thus, the spouses, children, and other family members of these immigrants also came to France. Most immigrants, realizing that they could not or did not want to return to their homeland, asked for French nationality before quietly retiring. However, many live alone in housing projects, having now lost their ties with their families and friends back from their home countries.
Olivier Roy indicates that for first-generation immigrants, the fact that they are Muslims is only one element among others. Their identification with their country of origin is much stronger: they see themselves first through their descent (Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, etc.).
The false claim that a third of newborns in France have Muslim parents, is brought up in sensationalist American immigration discourse.
Maghrebis.
According to Michèle Tribalat, a researcher at INED, people of Maghrebi origin in France represent 82% of the Muslim population (43.2% from Algeria, 27.5% from Morocco, and 11.4% from Tunisia). Others are from sub-Saharan Africa (9.3%) and Turkey (8.6%). She estimated that there were 3.5 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one grandparent from Algeria, Morocco, or Tunisia) living in France in 2005 corresponding to 5.8% of the total French metropolitan population (60.7 million in 2005). Maghrebis have settled mainly in the industrial regions in France, especially in the Paris region. Many famous French people like Edith Piaf, Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon, and many others have varying degrees of Maghrebi ancestry.
Below is a table of the population of Maghrebi origin in France, numbers are in thousands:
In 2005, the percentage of young people under 18 of Maghrebi origin (at least one immigrant parent) was about 7% in Metropolitan France, 12% in Greater Paris and above 20% in French département of Seine-Saint-Denis.
In 2008, the French national institute of statistics, INSEE, estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. About 4 million of them are of Maghrebi origin.
According to some non-scientific sources between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebin origin live in France corresponding to about 7–9% of the total French metropolitan population.
Religious practices.
The great majority of Muslims practice their religion in the French framework of laïcité, as a religious code of conduct must not infringe the public area. A study in 2008 found that 39% pray (salat) five times a day, 23% attend mosque on Fridays, 70% observe the fast of Ramadan, and 66% abstain from alcohol. Rachel Brown shows that some Muslims in France alter some of these religious practices, particularly food practices, as a means of showing "integration" into French culture. According to expert Franck Fregosi: "Although fasting during Ramadan is the most popular practice, it ranks more as a sign of Muslim identity than piety, and it is more a sign of belonging to a culture and a community", and he added that not drinking alcohol "seems to be more a cultural behavior".
Some Muslims (the UOIF for example) request the recognition of an Islamic community in France (which remains to be built) with an official status.
Two main organizations are recognized by the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM): the "Federation of the French Muslims" ("Fédération des musulmans de France") with a majority of Moroccan leaders, and the controversial "Union of Islamic Organisations of France" ("Union des organizations islamiques de France") (UOIF). In 2008, there were about 2,125 Muslim places of worship in France.
Education.
Since publicly funded state schools in France must be secular, owing to the 1905 separation of Church and State, Muslim parents who wish their children to be educated at a religious school often choose private (and therefore fee-paying, though heavily subsidized) Catholic schools, of which there are many. Few specifically Muslim schools have been created. There is a Muslim school in La Réunion (a French island to the east of Madagascar), and the first Muslim "collège" (a school for students aged eleven to fifteen) opened its doors in 2001 in Aubervilliers (a suburb northeast of Paris), with eleven students. Unlike most private schools in the United States and the UK, these religious schools are affordable for most parents since they may be heavily subsidized by the government (teachers' wages in particular are covered by the state).
Radicalization.
In November 2015 in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, French authorities for the first time closed three mosques with extremist activities and radicalization being given as the reason. The mosques were located in Lagny-sur-Marne, Lyon, and Gennevilliers. Muslim community leaders widely condemned the Paris attacks in public statements and expressed their support for the French government's attempts to oppose Islamist extremism.
Due to the deadly attacks in 2015, France changed the character of Islamist radicalization from a security threat to constitute a societal problem. President François Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls saw the fundamental values of the French republic being challenged and called them attacks against fundamental secular, enlightenment, and democratic values along with "what makes us who we are".
In 2016, French authorities reported that 120 of the 2,500 Islamic prayer halls were disseminating Salafist ideas and 20 mosques were closed due to findings of hate speech. In 2016, French authorities stated that of the individuals on the list of security threats belong to Islamist movements.
In 2018, EU anti-terror coordinator Gilles de Kerchove estimated there to be 17,000 radicalized Muslims and jihadists living in France.
In 2018, French intelligence services monitored around 11,000 individuals with suspected ties to radical Islamism. France has sentenced a large number of individuals for terrorist-related offenses which have increased the prison population. This in turn has created an issue with radicalization in French prisons.
In February 2019, authorities in Grenoble closed the Al-Kawthar Mosque for six months due to it propagating a "radical Islamist ideology". The Al-Kawthar Mosque had about 400 regular visitors. In several of the sermons, the imam legitimized armed jihad, violence, and hatred towards followers of other religions' anti-republican values and promoted Sharia law.
In November 2019, French authorities closed cafés, schools, and mosques in about 15 neighborhoods due to them disseminating political Islam and communitarian ideas.
In October 2020, President Emmanuel Macron announced a crackdown on "Islamist separatism" in Muslim communities in France, saying a bill with this objective would be sent to parliament in "early 2021." Among the measures, would be a ban on foreign imams, restrictions on homeschooling, and the creation of an "Institute of Islamology" to tackle Islamic fundamentalism. His government introduced a bill that would punish with jail terms and fine any doctor who provides virginity certificates for traditional, religious marriages. ANCIC stated it supported the government's stand against "virginity tests" but warned that in some cases women were in "real danger" and "a ban would simply deny the existence of such community practices, without making them disappear". The association suggested that the issue be "tackled quite differently so that women and men free themselves and reject the weight of [such] traditions." On 16 February 2021, the law passed the lower house 347—151 with 65 abstentions.
Terrorist attacks in France.
France had its first occurrences with religious extremism in the 1980s due to French involvement in the Lebanese Civil War. In the 1990s, a series of attacks on French soil were executed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA).
In the 1990–2010 time span, France experienced repeated attacks linked to international jihadist movements. "Le Monde" reported on 26 July 2016 that "Islamist Terrorism" had caused 236 dead in France in the preceding 18-month period.
In the 2015–2018 timespan in France, 249 people were killed and 928 wounded in a total of 22 terrorist attacks.
The deadly attacks in 2015 in France changed the issue of Islamist radicalization from a security threat to also constitute a social problem. Prime minister François Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls saw the fundamental values of the French republic being challenged and called them attacks against secular, enlightenment and democratic values along with "what makes us who we are".
Although jihadists in the 2015-onward timeframe legitimized their attacks with a narrative of reprisal for France's participation in the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, Islamic terrorism in France