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ISLAM

More and more French believe Islam is compatible with society

While the role of Islam in French society has long been a divisive and inflammatory topic a new study suggests people in France are now more accepting of the religion.

More and more French believe Islam is compatible with society
The Grand Mosque in Paris. Photo: AFP
The new survey showed that 56 percent of French people believe Islam to be compatible with the values of French society compared to two years ago when the same percentage believed the opposite to be true. 
 
Carried out by pollsters Ifop on behalf of Le Journal de Dimanche, the survey however also showed that 43 percent of the country does not think the religion is compatible with life in France (see graph below). 
 
The survey comes at a time when France is waiting for President Macron to deliver his vision for the role of Islam in French society. 
 
In an interview with Le Journal de Dimanche in November the president said he wanted “to reorganize Islam in France to better integrate worship, fight fundamentalism and preserve 'national cohesion'.”
 
In September, a survey that looked at how Muslims themselves felt about their home country showed that Muslims living in France feel a stronger attachment to their country than they do in much of Europe, despite experiencing high levels of discrimination. That study also found that first generation Muslims feel more attached to France than their offspring. 
 
This week's Journal de Dimanche survey also asked the French what they thought about the creation of a tax on halal products, the revenues of which would be used to finance Muslim worship in France. 
 
On this point, there was no debate, with the large majority of respondents (70 percent) opposed to the idea and only 29 percent of French people saying they were in favor of a “halal tax”.
 
In the graph below, the results on the left relate to the question of whether people believe Islam to be compatible with French society while those on the right relate to the question of the “halal tax”.

 
 
Ifop survey results: JDD
 
 
The subject of Muslim integration in France is one of the country's most hotly debated issues and so it probably doesn't come as a surprise that people's views on this matter varied greatly according to which political party they supported. 
 
The survey showed that the more left-wing the voter, the more likely they were to consider Islam compatible with French society. 
 
In total, 73 percent of people who supported France's Socialist party believed Islam to be compatible as did 60 percent of those who supported left-wing party “La France Insoumise” (France Unbowed).
 
And 58 percent of people who supported French president Emmanuel Macron's Republique en Marche party thought the same. 
 
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The Grand Mosque of Paris. Photo: AFP

At the other end of the political spectrum, among those who support the right-wing Les Republicains party, 63 percent think that the religion is “incompatible with the values ​​of the French society”. 
 
Somewhat surprisingly, National Front voters were slightly less likely to think of the Muslim religion as incompatible with French society but the figure was still high, at 62 percent. 

RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

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The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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