France holds Europe’s most favorable Muslim views yet wildly overestimates Muslim population.

Evidence

One spot of good news was that, even despite the rise of Marine Le Pen, Pew further found that the highest overall positive rating was actually in France, where 76 percent of people surveyed said that they had a favorable view of Muslims. Strangely though, the French population still over-estimates the number of Muslims in France because an Ipsos-Mori poll once found that French citizens thought that their country contained a population that was 31 percent Muslim (even though only 8 percent of France is actually Muslim). — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 547

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why does the most favorable-view country hold the most inflated population estimates? A paradox worth chasing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 547
• XREF: connects to: Europe’s Muslim population share far exceeds that of the United States — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 341; European hostility toward Muslims exceeds even hostility toward other immigrants — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 37; Counter-terrorism justification armd France to broadly profile and suppress Muslims (+2 more)

Related

• Europe’s Muslim population share far exceeds that of the United States (similarity 0.84)
• Majorities in several Western countries hold negative views of Islam. (similarity 0.80)
• Europe’s Muslim population reached 18.2 million by 2010 (similarity 0.79)
• France’s laïcité secularism now targets Muslim identity almost exclusively (similarity 0.79)
• Europe’s Muslim population is projected to reach 29.8 million by 2030 (similarity 0.79)
• European Muslim integration will enrich rather than harm Europe (similarity 0.79)
• Resurgent Islam within European societies fuels the same fear in France as in Britain (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• European hostility toward Muslims exceeds even hostility toward other immigrants #qualifies (0.60) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 37
• A country famed for religious tolerance now leads European Islamophobia #contradicts (0.60) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 517
• Counter-terrorism justification armd France to broadly profile and suppress Muslims #complicates (0.50)
• The Hijab Ban solidified the idea that Muslim and French are clashing identities #complicates (0.50)