French Muslim group demands investigation into census allegedly shared with Israel

A French Muslim organisation has denounced a survey that may have been requested by a powerful pro-Israel lobby group and then passed on to French and Israeli intelligence services.

Drawing attention to an “unprecedented and extremely serious” affair, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) has called for a “thorough and transparent” investigation of a survey of French Muslims conducted by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).

The organisation was speaking out after pro-Israel French consultant Didier Meir Long claimed in a video to have been investigating and working since early 2023 “on a strategy for the CRIF and various Jewish organisations in France” about Muslims in France.

Alongside Dov Maimon, a senior fellow at the Israeli think tank Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), who advises the Israeli government on its strategy toward Islam and the security of Jewish communities in Europe, Long said he had gathered information from various French security and intelligence figures.

“We met with people from the DGSI [French domestic intelligence service], analysts, former superintendents from Seine-Saint-Denis [in the Paris region], chief superintendents, people from the DRM [Directorate of Military Intelligence], as well as local politicians, security experts, intellectuals, etc.,” Long said.

He added that the information gathered was then passed on as a report to Israeli intelligence services.

None of the institutions mentioned have confirmed these claims, and Middle East Eye has been unable to independently verify the video or obtain further details about the conference in which it was filmed.

In its statement, the CFCM said that it was "within its rights to question" this practice, in a country where the law prohibits the collection of data related to religious affiliation in order to protect individual liberties.

"On what grounds, and why, could information concerning French citizens have been commissioned, collected and transmitted to foreign intelligence services? Under what conditions could French civil servants, presented as having been solicited, have contributed to such an undertaking?" the CFCM asked.

🚨 INSOLITE

Didier Meïr Long nous explique tranquillement que le CRIF a fait une demande de recensement de tous les musulmans de France auprès de la DGSI et de membres haut placés au sein de la police.

Les informations ont ensuite été transmises aux services de renseignement… pic.twitter.com/Mm1P5w45oq

— Tribune Populaire🌐 (@TribunePop23) November 21, 2025

Translation: "Didier Meïr Long calmly explains to us that the CRIF made a request to the DGSI and to high-ranking members within the police for a census of all Muslims in France. The information was then transmitted to Israeli intelligence services. For what purpose? How did they obtain confidential reports from French secret services? How is it that a FOREIGN STATE has a census of certain French citizens based on their origin or their religion? The last one to have carried out a count of the population based on their religious affiliation was a little mustachioed Austrian, and we remember how that ended."

The organisation announced it will refer the matter to the national commission responsible for the protection of personal data and the relevant administrative authorities, particularly the interior ministry.

"The racialisation of French society, conflation and generalisations have no place in the Republic," the statement read.

‘Surrounded’ by Muslims

The CFCM also criticised Long and his colleague for "seemingly equating French Muslims with a threat to French Jews and implying that their investigation into French Muslims aimed to assess 'this threat' by acting as 'watchdogs and analysts'."

In the video, Long says he "sounded the alarm" following the conclusions of his survey, which he said found that the number of Muslims in France is much higher than existing estimates of around 5 million.

"We cross-checked, analysed and conducted interviews on the ground: there are currently 10 million people who eat halal in France, and of those 10 million, 7 million are Muslim. Since 80 percent of Muslims eat halal, we have roughly 9 million Muslims in reality," he says.

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"The state knows this, but it's obviously never formalised, it never makes the airwaves."

Long also claims that 150,000 Jewish people are in danger because they are in direct contact with Arab, Turkish or Pakistani Muslims, and that in many French towns, Jews are “surrounded” by Muslims.

Long is the co-author, with Maimon, of a book entitled The End of the Jews of France?, which asserts that "if nothing is done, there will be no more Jews in France by 2050".

"Of the 440,000 French Jews we have counted in France today, with specific local situations, approximately 150,000 are in danger," the book says.

The authors indicate that they have "collected French and Israeli data, interviewed intelligence and security forces from both countries, politicians, community members and associations, and read hundreds of reports."

In addition to measuring "halal sales", the authors use Muslim first names to reach the figure of 15 percent Muslims, or 9 million people, in France. “Taking into account population growth, this figure will climb to 20-25 percent Muslims in France by 2050. This is certainly not a ‘great replacement’ but it’s significant.”

The idea of ​​a “great replacement” of the French population by communities originating mainly from Africa, particularly Muslims, is a recurring theme of the French far-right.

The video’s release coincided with a highly controversial survey on Muslims in France that was accused of “violating the principle of objectivity” and being “based on biased questions” to spread “the poison of hatred in the public sphere”, prompting several complaints from Muslim organisations.

The survey, which concludes that there is “a phenomenon of ‘re-Islamization’ that particularly affects younger generations and is accompanied by a worrying increase in adherence to Islamist ideology,” was commissioned by a media company linked to an alleged Emirati smear campaign, sparking suspicions of foreign interference.