In France, terror hits schools



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reThe trial of the terrorists’ accomplices in the attack on Charlie Hebdo was under way when 90 major media outlets published a manifesto for freedom of expression. No newspaper illustrated the appeal with one of the Muhammad cartoons that the satirical magazine reprinted at the start of the trial. Again there were death threats, an employee had to leave her apartment in ten minutes; he has been under police protection since 2015. A knife attack in front of the old editorial building resulted in two seriously injured people. History teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded on Friday, had also shown the cartoons to students two weeks earlier in a lesson on freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

Jürg Altwegg

The newspapers reacted to the negotiations in the courts with their manifesto for press freedom. “Charlie Hebdo” attorney Richard Malka spoke of the “judgment of a defeat” and accused the newspapers of discouragement. Witnesses and survivors stressed in the courtroom how much the situation had worsened since the attack. Fear triumphs: there are, Malka said with resignation, there are no books, there are no exhibitions, there are no films or plays that critically address Islam.

“Charlie Hebdo” settled with politicians and intellectuals as intellectual accomplices of the terrorists. For fear of fomenting “Islamophobia”, they belittle the totalitarian threat. Nor is the media’s call to defend press freedom formulated as a courageous declaration of war. Avoid terms like “Islamism” and radical Islam. There is talk of fanatics, but without ideological classification.

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A long-ignored threat

The brutal murder hits a symbol of the republic. A ban on the veil in schools had been ordered, making France an enemy of the Muslim world. The death of Samuel Paty forces France to face a reality that it may know but that it represses. In all the media, the banlieue professors say that for a long time it has been impossible to deal with subjects like the biography of the Prophet, the Shoah, 9/11 or Darwin. And they frankly admit that they avoid conflict out of fear and because they don’t really have the support of school authorities. They practice self-censorship. The kneeling of culture denounced by “Charlie Hebdo” is common in school; In many places the minute of silence for the dead journalists was interrupted at that time.

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