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Police sources previously said that the 18-year-old killer had exchanged messages on WhatsApp with the man who wanted Samuel Paty fired after his daughter told him how the teacher had shown him cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on freedom of expression.
Family and colleagues hold up a photo of Samuel Paty during the ‘Marche Blanche’ in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris, on October 20, 2020, in solidarity after he was beheaded for showing students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad . Image: AFP
PARIS – A man who beheaded a history teacher on the outskirts of Paris last week had been in contact with a father who was leading an online campaign against the professor, the murder investigation revealed Tuesday.
The breakthrough in the case came as President Emmanuel Macron vowed more pressure on Islamist extremism after days of drastic measures that resulted in more than a dozen arrests, a mosque was ordered closed and a pro-Hamas group disbanded. .
“Our fellow citizens await action,” Macron said during a visit to a Paris suburb. “These actions will intensify.”
Police sources previously said that the 18-year-old killer had exchanged messages on WhatsApp with the man who wanted Samuel Paty fired after his daughter told him how the teacher had shown him cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on freedom of expression.
The father, the father of a girl in Paty’s class, was behind an online campaign calling for “mobilization” against the teacher.
‘IT’S NOT A MINUTE OF RESPECT’
The man, now in police custody, posted his phone number on Facebook and exchanged messages with the murderer, 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, on WhatsApp in the days leading up to the murder, police sources told AFP.
Anzorov was shot and killed by police shortly after the murder.
Among other messages, the father had posted a video criticizing Paty’s choice of lesson material.
The mosque, which is now scheduled for a six-month closure, shared this video on its own Facebook page.
Macron added that a pro-Hamas group active in France would be disbanded for being “directly involved” in the teacher’s murder.
The decision to shut down the “Cheikh Yassine Collective”, which supports the Palestinian cause and is named after the founder of Hamas, will be made at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, he said.
The group’s founder and Islamist radical, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, is currently detained by police for posting a video on YouTube insulting Paty.
Prime Minister Jean Castex told MPs on Tuesday that the government now targets “all associations whose complicity with radical Islamism has been established.”
Paty, 47, was attacked on Friday as she was returning home from the high school where she taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Paris.
Police arrested 16 people in connection with the murder, including four members of Anzorov’s family.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin promised that there would be “not a minute’s respite for the enemies of the Republic.”
ONLINE CAMPAIGN
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Tuesday that Paty would be posthumously awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Legion of Honor.
The school said that Paty had given Muslim students the option of leaving the classroom before he showed the cartoons.
But the girl’s father was outraged that he was showing a cartoon of the naked prophet and requested that Paty be fired for spreading “pornography”.
On Tuesday, the head of the Pantin mosque, M’hammed Henniche, said he had shared the father’s video out of fear that Muslim children would be singled out in class.
Five students suspected of accepting payment for pointing out Paty to her killer were among those in police custody.
‘THE DECAPITATED REPUBLIC’
Paty’s beheading was the second knife attack claimed in the name of avenging the Prophet since a trial began last month for Charlie hebdo murders in 2015 when 12 people, including cartoonists, were shot dead for publishing cartoons of Muhammad.
After Paty’s murder, Macron threatened that “fear is about to change sides.”
Young Interior Minister Marlene Schiappa gathered French social media bosses on Tuesday to discuss strengthening the “fight against cyber-Islam.”
Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations across the country over the weekend to honor Paty and defend freedom of expression.
The French parliament observed a minute of silence for Paty on Tuesday, as thousands gathered for a silent march in honor of the teacher at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in the evening.
Macron will attend an official tribute with Paty’s family on Wednesday at the Sorbonne University.
Darmanin has called for more vigilance in schools when students return after fall break.
The next edition of Charlie hebdoMeanwhile, it will feature the headline “The Beheaded Republic” on its front page along with cartoons depicting various professions, the weekly said Tuesday.
“These murderers want to decapitate democracy itself,” reads the editorial to be published on Wednesday.
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