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Shock and deep horror in France: again an attacker brutally beat because of the Muhammad cartoons. The perpetrator ambushed a teacher in a Paris suburb and later beheaded him.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said that the republic had been struck to its heart by Islamist terrorism. Several people, including those close to the alleged assailant, have been detained. Scores of people took to the streets across the country on Saturday in solidarity with the dead.
According to the prosecutor Jean-François Ricard, the alleged aggressor is a man of Russian and Chechen origin, born in 2002. He came to France as a refugee and has had a residence permit since spring.
Police shot the man shortly after the crime. After the teacher’s murder, the attacker posted a photo of the victim online and sent a message to French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he described as the “leader of the infidels.” “I executed one of your hellhounds who dared to look down on Mohammed.”
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The incident occurred on Friday afternoon in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. There, the attacker killed the 47-year-old teacher; his body was found decapitated with numerous wounds to the upper body and head. Investigators also found a bloodstained knife about a foot long near the crime scene.
The prosecutor Ricard commented in detail on the alleged antecedents of the crime. The attack was preceded by threats against the teacher and the school. The teacher had addressed the topic of freedom of expression as part of the class in early October. The reason was the renewed publication of the Muhammad cartoons by the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo”. The teacher showed the corresponding cartoons in class.
Then a parent posted posts on social media, complained to the school leadership, and mobilized against the teacher. According to the media, the father was accompanied to the school by a known Islamist who, like the father, is now in police custody.
Just a few weeks ago there was a knife attack in front of the former “Charlie Hebdo” publishing house in Paris. Two people were injured; here too, the author had given him caricatures of Muhammad as a motif. There was a devastating murder attack against the editorial team of “Charlie Hebdo” in January 2015, in which the newspaper’s leading cartoonists were murdered.
The trial of the alleged aides of the Islamist terrorist series is ongoing in Paris in January 2015, in which a total of 17 people died. The editorial office is now in a secret location for security reasons.
Attack on the separation between religion and church
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer described the act as an attack on the separation between religion and church. “Clearly there are enemies of the republic, they are against the republic and therefore against the school, because the school is the backbone of the republic,” he said. France has a long secular tradition, Church and State have been separate for more than 100 years. Freedom of religion is also enshrined in the constitution of the fifth republic of 1958.
French President Macron had already spoken of an Islamist terrorist act shortly after the crime. It is no coincidence that a terrorist murdered a master of all people because he wanted to attack the country’s values, said the head of state visibly beaten near the crime scene. A national commemorative event is planned, he said from the presidential office.
In the fight against radical Islamism, Macron had recently focused on education as a central element. Distance learning for stay-at-home children will be strictly limited starting next summer. The lessons are compulsory from the age of three.
“The school creates free spirit, enlightened citizens, and that is exactly what Islamists, who live off stupidity, ignorance, indoctrination and hatred, cannot tolerate,” said Interior Minister Marlène Schiappa, to the Franceinfo channel.
There was also great international sympathy after the brutal attack. “We must never be intimidated by terror, extremism and violence,” wrote German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Twitter. “My thoughts are also with the teachers, in France and throughout Europe. Without them there are no citizens. Without them there is no democracy ”, wrote the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
France has been rocked by Islamist attacks for years: more than 250 people died. Therefore, people are almost always aware of the threat of terrorism. The French government has made the fight against terrorism a priority and continues to warn that the risk of terrorist attacks is very high. (dpa, teaspoon)
