The Hudson New York reports that there are more Islamic mosques being built in France than Roman Catholic churches.
It reports that there are more than 2,000 mosques in France in just the past ten years. By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches.
Although 64% of the French population (or 41.6 million) identifies itself as Roman Catholic, only 4.5% (or 1.9 million) of those actually are practising Catholics. By way of comparison, there are an estimated 6 million mostly ethnic North African and sub-Saharan Muslims in France and 41% (or 2.5 million) say they are "practising" Muslims.
In this month of Ramadan, a new mosque for 2,000 worshipers will be opened in Strasbourg, while construction also continues of a new mosque in Marseille, France's second-largest city. The Grand Mosque has more than 8,300 square meters (92,000 square feet) and designed to accommodate up to 7,000 worshippers. It is designed to be the biggest symbol of Islam's place in modern France.