How many Muslims are there in France?

I know what I'll do! I'll do the Islam in France thing in stages.
Firstly - How many Muslims are there in France?

Good question! Nobody really knows, because the French Constitution forbids the state asking anyone their religion or ethnic origin, so there are no official statistics on the number of Muslims in France.

But it is a lot. The largest number of any of the EU countries. Estimates vary between 2 million and 5 million. 5 million would be 1/12 of the population.

Why so many Muslims? Because of France's colonial past. France colonised North African countries, and so lots of French people are of Algerian or Morrocan background.

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