French Islamism Report: Macron Warned of Infiltration Threat

A report pre­sent­ed to Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron warns of “entry­ism” by Islamism in France, threat­en­ing nation­al cohe­sion. On 21 May 2025, BBC News report­ed that senior civ­il ser­vants iden­ti­fied evi­dence of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood “entry­ism” into France’s repub­li­can insti­tu­tions, includ­ing schools and local gov­ern­ment. The report claims this rep­re­sents a new phe­nom­e­non dis­tinct from sep­a­ratism, involv­ing delib­er­ate infil­tra­tion to change French soci­ety from within.

The arti­cle begins:

Islamists are infil­trat­ing France’s repub­li­can insti­tu­tions and are a threat to nation­al cohe­sion, accord­ing to a report pre­sent­ed to Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron on Wednes­day. The report, drawn up by two senior civ­il ser­vants, claims to find evi­dence for a pol­i­cy of “entry­ism” by the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood into pub­lic bod­ies like schools and local gov­ern­ment. After a meet­ing of his secu­ri­ty cab­i­net, Macron asked the gov­ern­ment to come up with “new pro­pos­als” by ear­ly next month in light of the seri­ous­ness of the report’s con­clu­sions. Sec­u­lar­ism is a core tenet of France’s nation­al iden­ti­ty. Accord­ing to an Élysée offi­cial speak­ing off the record, there is a “new phe­nom­e­non — entry­ism — which is dif­fer­ent from sep­a­ratism”. While sep­a­ratism implied Mus­lims liv­ing in a par­al­lel soci­ety in France, “entry­ism means get­ting involved in repub­li­can infra­struc­ture… in order to change it from the inside. It requires dis­sim­u­la­tion… and it works from the bot­tom up,” the offi­cial said.

           Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgnnelvz0do

Key Points

• The report iden­ti­fies the Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lims of France (FMF) as con­trol­ling 139 places of wor­ship and 280 asso­ci­a­tions across France.
• The authors claim the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood tar­gets Europe with finan­cial back­ing from Turkey and Qatar after los­ing Mid­dle East­ern influence.
• Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Bruno Retail­leau warns of “below-the-radar Islamism” attempt­ing to impose sharia law on French soci­ety gradually
• The Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lims of France angri­ly reject­ed alle­ga­tions, call­ing accu­sa­tions dan­ger­ous stigma­ti­za­tion of Islam and Muslims.

Islamism in France: Muslim Brotherhood Networks

The debate over Islamism in France is increas­ing­ly shaped by the activ­i­ties of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-linked net­works, with far-right fig­ures like Marine Le Pen call­ing for a ban on the French Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and the state inten­si­fy­ing scruti­ny of orga­ni­za­tions accused of entry­ism. The CFCM’s struc­ture and for­eign ties have come under par­tic­u­lar focus, as have Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed groups that reject gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tives like the Char­ter of Repub­li­can Val­ues and mobi­lize youth against per­ceived state hos­til­i­ty. Gov­ern­ment actions include end­ing fund­ing for Mus­lim schools with Broth­er­hood ties and fac­ing legal chal­lenges from affect­ed insti­tu­tions, while par­lia­men­tary ten­sions have erupt­ed over the invi­ta­tion of CCIE, a group linked to pre­vi­ous­ly banned Broth­er­hood-aligned organizations.

The dis­so­lu­tion of the Col­lec­tive Against Islam­o­pho­bia in France (CCIF) and the role of Broth­er­hood fig­ures in new imam super­vi­so­ry bod­ies high­light the con­test over reli­gious author­i­ty and inte­gra­tion. These devel­op­ments unfold against a back­drop of gov­ern­ment efforts to counter “Islamist sep­a­ratism,” as Pres­i­dent Macron has announced stricter laws to defend sec­u­lar val­ues and restrict for­eign influ­ence. At the same time, the Brotherhood’s strat­e­gy of “entryism”—infiltrating insti­tu­tions to effect change from within—has been iden­ti­fied by offi­cial reports as a key risk to nation­al cohe­sion. France’s approach is close­ly watched across Europe, as debates over sec­u­lar­ism, inte­gra­tion, and reli­gious free­dom inten­si­fy in the face of chang­ing demo­graph­ics and secu­ri­ty concerns.

Exter­nal References:

1. French report warns of Islamist ‘entry­ism’ as risk to nation­al cohe­sion (BBC, 2025)

2. France’s Macron vows to fight ‘Islamist sep­a­ratism’ (BBC, 2020)

3. France Islam: Mus­lims under pres­sure to sign French val­ues char­ter (BBC, 2020)

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.