Majority of young French Muslims put sharia above national laws

From The Telegraph

Poll also finds that more than a third have sympathy for Islamism A majority of young French Muslims rank sharia above the laws of the Republic, according to a study.

The poll, for Ecran de veille magazine, also found that more than a third sympathise with Islamist ideology. Some 57 per cent of Muslims aged 15 to 24 believe Islamic law should outrank French legislation in areas such as ritual slaughter of animals, marriage and inheritance.

It is thought to be a steep rise from three decades ago, when just 36 per cent of French Muslims aged 18 to 24 felt that sharia should take precedence.

François Kraus, the historian who wrote the study, suggested the findings pointed to “a process of re-Islamisation” driven by younger generations. He said: “This survey very clearly outlines the profile of a Muslim population increasingly structured around rigourist religious norms and tempted by an Islamist political project.”

“Fundamentalism has won over the minds of more than one in three Muslims,” said Mr Kraus. Some 38 per cent of those surveyed approved of all or part of “Islamist” positions in 2025. . . It also translates into a very violent gender separatism. You have 45 per cent of young Muslims who refuse to ‘faire la bise’,” Mr Kraus said, referring to the customary French cheek-kiss greeting.

The report also revealed a dramatic increase in Mosque attendance, which rose from 7 per cent in 1989 to 40 per cent today. Meanwhile, strict fasting during Ramadan jumped from 51 to 83 per cent and the proportion of young women wearing the veil has nearly tripled.

Social habits have also changed: alcohol consumption among Muslims under 25 has fallen from nearly 30 per cent in 2011 to just 12 per cent today. Only 12 per cent of young Muslims now want Islam to adapt to modernity, down from 41 per cent in 1998.

France has Europe’s largest Muslim cohort, making up around 7 per cent of the French population up from less than 1 per cent 40 years ago.

(Another) confidential report presented to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in May. ..warned that Islamist networks, particularly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, were practising “entryism”, infiltrating schools, associations, and local institutions in order to “change them from within”. In July, Mr Macron announced he would be imposing “restrictive measures” to better combat Islamism, via financial sanctions and increased surveillance of organisations.

Reacting to the study, Pierre-Romain Thionnet, a politician from the populist National Rally, said that Muslim youth were “not assimilating but re-Islamising”.

Bruno Guillot, a former Salafist imam, told Europe 1: “We must stop separating Islam and Sharia law. Islam is Sharia law; Sharia law is Islam.”