Islam is a minority religion in France that is followed by around 3 million to 5. France's Muslim population grew starting in the second half of the 20th century, following immigration from former French colonies and protectorates in Africa and the Middle East. The majority of Muslims in France belong to the Sunni denomination and are of foreign origins. Sizeable minorities of Shia and non-denominational Muslims also exist. The French overseas region of Mayotte has a majority Muslim population.
During the conquest of Iberia and the conquest of Gaul , the Umayyad forces would conquer and annex the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula and modern day southern France.
Though they would eventually withdraw in AD. However, Septimania remained under Umayyad dominance until During a later battle, the Al Andalusians established the fortress Fraxinetum.
In , the Annales Bertiniani record that Muslims raided Marseille in southern France, plundered its religious houses and took captive both men and women, clerical and lay, as slaves. In , the Annales report a raid in the vicinity of Arles. In , raiders returned to Arles and captured the archbishop, Roland. They accepted a ransom in return for the archbishop, but when they handed him over he was already dead [ how? During the winter of —, after the siege of Nice , Toulon was used as an Ottoman naval base under admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa.
The Christian population was temporarily evacuated, and Toulon Cathedral was briefly converted into a mosque until the Ottomans' departure. After the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in —, about 50, Moriscos entered France, according to the research of Henri Lapeyre. Muslim immigration, mostly male, was high in the late s and s. These immigrants mostly hailed from Algeria and other former French colonies in North Africa; however, Islam has had an older history in France, since the Great Mosque of Paris was built in , as a sign of recognition from the French Republic to the fallen Muslim tirailleurs mainly coming from Algeria, in particular at the battle of Verdun and the takeover of the Douaumont fort.
