An Ipsos survey published this week in French daily Le Monde revealed that 74% of respondents considered Islam an “intolerant” religion and incompatible with the Republican values of French society, as opposed to the Catholic and Jewish religions.
Questioned on the tolerance levels of different religions, 24% of those asked judged that Catholicism is “completely tolerant”, compared with 13% for Judaism and only 3% for Islam.
By contrast, 7% responded that Catholicism is “not at all tolerant”, compared to 10% for Judaism and 39% for Islam. When asked about the compatibility of each religion with French values, 89% of respondents qualified Catholicism as compatible, putting it in first place, followed by 75% for Judaism, and 26% for Islam.
However, eight out of ten French nationals think that Islam seeks “to impose its belief system on others”. Furthermore, more than half of all French think that Muslims are “in the majority”, with 10% assessing them to be “in the minority” and 44% as “fundamentalist”, without any further explanation being provided as to the precise meaning of those terms.
Whilst the statistics varied according to the age and political affiliation of the respondents, the overall data remained largely conclusive across all categories. Whilst 65% of leftist and 68% of the under-35s shared the belief that Islam is not a tolerant religion, with 61% of the former and 66% of the latter category judging it incompatible with French values.
The survey’s findings highlight equally the negativity of French society and its defiance in the face of globalisation, of Europe, democracy, the media, Islam and immigration.
29% of respondents claimed that “the huge majority of immigrants entering France over the last 30 years are well integrated”. 70% share the belief that “there are too many foreigners in France”, whilst for 46%, in order “to reduce the number of unemployed, you have to reduce the number of immigrants”. Finally 57% considered that “racism towards the white minority is fairly widespread in France”.