Local offices of the national government have closed at least five Muslim schools since Macron came to power in 2017, according to a Reuters tally. Reuters was only able to find one Muslim school closed under his predecessors.

In the first year of Macron’s presidency, one other school lost public funding, pledged in May 2017 by the government of former president Francois Hollande.

Since 2017, only one Muslim school has been awarded state funding, compared to nine in total under Macron’s two predecessors, Education Ministry data shows. The National Federation for Muslim Education (FNEM) told Reuters it made about 70 applications on behalf of Muslim schools in that period.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former headmasters and teachers in ten Muslim schools, who said the establishments were being targeted, including being censured on flimsy grounds, and that perceived discrimination was preventing them integrating more closely with the state system.

“It’s really a double standard of who has to conform to secular Republican values in a certain way, and who doesn’t,” said American anthropologist Carol Ferrara, who studies French faith schools and says Catholic and Jewish schools are treated more leniently.

Prominent Parisian Catholic school Stanislas has kept its funding despite inspectors last year finding issues including sexist or homophobic ideas and mandatory religious classes, French media has reported.

The education ministry said the government had increased supervision of private schools under Macron, leading to more closures, including of some non-denominational schools. It cited budget restraints as a reason for the low number of schools offered public funding.

While some of the five closed Muslim schools taught conservative versions of Islam, according to the education ministry statements and closure orders, the headmasters and teachers Reuters spoke to emphasized their schools’ efforts to create a mainstream and tolerant teaching environment.

“There was never a desire for separatism,” said Mahmoud Awad, board member at Education & Savoir, the school that lost state funding soon after Macron took office.

A prohibition on hijab headscarves in public schools in 2004 created demand for schools where Muslim students, and in particular girls, could express religious identity.

An estimated 6.8 million Muslims live in France, data from France’s statistics agency shows, around 10% of the population. Islam is the country’s second-largest religion after Catholicism.

In a 2020 speech, Macron described a need to reverse what he saw as radicalization in Muslim communities, including practices such as the separation of sexes.

“The problem is an ideology which claims its own laws should be superior to those of the Republic,” he said.

Rights group Amnesty International has warned the government’s approach is potentially discriminatory and risks reinforcing stereotypes that conflate all Muslims with terrorism or radical views.

Source: Reuters