In January 2015 , the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that had ridiculed the Islamic prophet , Muhammad , and a neighborhood Jewish grocery store came under attack from radicalized Muslims who had been born and raised in the Paris region . World leaders rally to Paris to show their support for free speech . Analysts agree that the episode had a profound impact on France . '' The New York Times '' summarized the ongoing debate : So as France grieves , it is also faced with profound questions about its future : How large is the radicalized part of the country 's Muslim population , the largest in Europe ? How deep is the rift between France 's values of secularism , of individual , sexual and religious freedom , of freedom of the press and the freedom to shock , and a growing Muslim conservatism that rejects many of these values in the name of religion ? As of the 2000s Buddhism in France was estimated to have between 1 million ( Ministry of the Interior ) strict adherents and 5 million people influenced by Buddhist doctrines , very large numbers for a Western country . Many French Buddhists do not consider themselves " religious " . According to scholar Dennis Gira , who was the director of the Institute of Science and Theology of Religions of Paris , Buddhism in France has a missionary nature and is undergoing a process of " inculturation " that may represent a new turning of the " Wheel of the Dharma " , similar to those that it underwent in China and Japan , from which a new incarnation of the doctrine — a " French Buddhism " — will possibly arise
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Charlie Hebdo shooting
Religion in France