The article examines the evolution of French legislation on the issue of preserving religious and national identity and countering the spread of radical Islam in the past few decades. Particular attention is paid to the 2004 law banning religious symbols in schools and the work of the commissions of B. Stazi and J.-P. Obin, acting in 2003—2005. It was then, in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, that the members of the two state commissions attempted a comprehensive approach to solving the Islamic question in France, but the state authorities limited themselves to a simple ban on religious symbols in schools, and in subsequent years there were no major changes in the state approach to solving the problem, which has become one of the main reasons for the sharp deterioration of the situation in the past few years. E. Macron, who initially distanced from the issues of identity, has already done a lot to change the situation. It was on the initiative of Macron that a law on the strengthening of republican values has been developed today and will soon be adopted, which, finally, presents a comprehensive approach to solving the problem of religious radicalism in the Fifth Republic.