Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 6/8/2024; Author: Marko Vukajlović
France has recently been in the global spotlight due to sports, particularly the Olympic Games. It’s not unusual for France to be the center of attention for sports, as their football team is one of the best, and every result is closely followed.
However, some focus on the religious affiliation and skin color of the team members, and of France in general.
A post being shared on social media includes a photo of the French football team with the message: (archived: here)
“Perhaps you didn’t know, but Christians are a minority in France. This is God’s justice for the imperialistic ventures of the Gallic Roosters.”
This claim is untrue, and anyone can verify this by quickly searching on Google.
Not only are Christians not a minority, but they are actually the majority. Various data and surveys confirm this.
On the World Population Review website, it can be seen that Christians in France make up between 63% and 66% of the population, Muslims between 7% and 9%, about 5% are Buddhists and Jews, and 23% to 28% are non-religious.
The Britannica states that about three-fifths of the population belong to the Roman Catholic Church, while a U.S. State Department analysis indicates that 48% of respondents identified as Roman Catholics, 34% as non-religious, and 4% as Muslims.
Even agencies that focus on religious forecasts and projections predict that by 2050, Christians will still be the majority with 52%, the non-religious will make up around 34%, and Muslims 14.1%.
Therefore, Christians are not a minority in France, and this claim is rated as fake news.
The “Fake news” rating is given to an original media report (completely produced by the media that published it) that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and disseminated with the intent to misinform the public, that is, to present a completely false claim as fact.
