28 March 2017

61% of French adults say Islam is incompatible with their society and 79% support banning headscarves in universities, new poll shows

Sixty one per cent of French people believe Islam is incompatible with their society, according to a new poll.

That figure had been falling sharply until the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015, and has been steadily growing ever since, an Ipsos survey found.

That is compared with six per cent of people who believe Catholicism is incompatible and 17 per cent who believe Judaism is incompatible.

A further 79 per cent of French people supported banning headscarves on university campuses, while another 77 per cent want to see the burkini banned.

France already has a nationwide law banning anyone from wearing a full-face veil, while several French Riviera towns attempted to ban full-body 'burkinis' in 2016, but the law was overturned.

Ipsos polled 1,000 adults over the internet between March 16 and 17, and published the results on Wednesday last week.

The survey shows that French attitudes toward religion are highly conservative, with 90 per cent believing that secularism is vital to the Republic. [Daily Mail] Read more