New IFOP Study Explores Ideological Influences Among Muslims in France

The second volume of the massive survey of Islam and Islamism in France by the respected French polling organisation IFOP on the commission of the magazine Écran de Veille (part of Global Watch) was published on 18 November 2025. This covert infiltration index is used to determine the power of Muslim Brotherhood-type thought and networks among the Muslims in France. IFOP emphasizes that the project is a well-founded risk analysis, strategic, and not a form of activism, but a way of informing the public debate before a draft law (which is likely to be proposed on 22 January 2026) suggests banning the Brotherhood as incompatible with French secularism and civic equality.

Focus of the Second Survey Phase

The second report measures the political-ideological impact, especially the existence of Muslim brotherhood related ideas (so-called frerisme) among the Muslim community in France. The study measures the proximity of Muslim brotherhood thought and political attitudes based on telephone interviews with 1 005 metropolitan France Muslims over age 15 (interviewed between 8 August and 2 September 2025).

• Approximately, 23 percent of the respondents report being close to the current of thought of the Brotherhood to some extent and 52 percent report distantness.
• A substantial number are inclined to people linked to frerisme: e.g., around 30 per cent to the vision of Tariq Ramadan, and smaller percentages to such people as Mohamed Morsi.
• The research also focuses on the perception of charia (Islamic law) and association of religious norms with the French civic law, which show subtle views among the participants.

The point that IFOP made is that such findings are indicative signs of the social attitudes, and not witnesses of organised political conspiracy.

Scientific Rigor and Institutional Context

The IFOP is an organization of social research that is among the most ancient in France and applies the method of quota sampling and demographic weighting to guarantee representativity. The mapping of religiosity and practice among Muslims and other populations in France, the first phase of the larger research, was published on 13 November 2025 and prefigured a second phase of study of the ideology itself.

The index of covert infiltration reflects unbiased scholarly research design: the questions and indicators were formulated in collaboration with the specialists, and the analysis is performed only on the data submitted by the respondents. According to IFOP data is collected and weighted according to the standard procedures whereas the interpretation work on the political-ideological scales was performed by Écran de Veille.

Why This Matters for Policy Debate

There is a risk of overlooking the systematic analysis of social and ideological trends in large communities at the cost of negligence in policy-making, especially when it comes to the discussion of secularism (laïcite) and the equality of citizens, as well as social order in France. The survey is not concerned with faith but investigates the issue of political instrumentalisation of religion that might affect the democratic cohesion.

The advocates of the new law believe that openness regarding ideological influence, particularly when it is connected to such political projects as opposed to personal conviction, allows making the democratic choice and assists people in avoiding manipulation. The fact-based reporting is not the use of slogans but gives the institution the opportunity to deliberate, based on methodology and process.

Balancing Facts and Public Discourse

Although the IFOP research has been criticized by certain commentators and organizations on specific aspects of the survey or its analysis, the study is a factual piece of data that has contributed to the study of intricate social dynamics. Though in a republican democracy, this kind of analysis is useful to the security policy as well as the preservation of the rights of individual citizens, in which defence of citizens would be the defence against political instrumentalisation of religion without stigmatising of individual believers.