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In many French cities, people have thought of the history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded on the street on Friday. Prime Minister Jean Castex participated in a rally at the Place de la Republique in Paris. Commemorative events were also held in Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux, as well as in numerous smaller cities.
The protesters displayed the slogan “Je suis Samuel” (I am Samuel), based on the confession “Je suis Charlie” after the Islamist assassination attempt against the editors of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in 2015. An 18-year-old With Chechen roots Paty was beheaded with a knife on the street Friday night in the Paris suburbs. Soon after, the police shot him dead. Paty had shown her students cartoons of Mohammed in citizenship class on free speech. President Emmanuel Macron evaluated the attack as an act of Islamist terrorism.
The protesters also included teachers who expressed solidarity with their murdered colleague and denounced their own fears. She “realized that one can die from the lessons,” she quoted Nathalie, a primary school teacher at “Le Monde”. The Mehdi vocational school teacher said they were at the Place de Republique “to remind them that we are a secular state and that we must get to the root of the problem.” Teachers would be “killed for doing our job.”
Prime Minister Castex told the Journal du Dimanche that the government was working on a strategy to better protect teachers. “I want the teachers to know that after this vicious act, the whole country will be behind them.” The tragedy affects everyone in France, because with this teacher the republic was attacked.
Police have now arrested eleven people in connection with the crime, including four close relatives of the 18-year-old. According to terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, a half-sister of the perpetrator joined the “Islamic State” in Syria in 2014. It is unclear where she is today.
Ricard said a confession to the crime and a photo of the victim were found on the suspect’s phone. He also confirmed the authenticity of a Twitter account. It posted a photo of the severed head a few minutes after the crime, along with the words: “I executed one of the hellhounds who dared to humiliate Mohammed.”
Representatives of moderate Muslims in France strongly condemned the act. A group of imams from the Lyon area announced a meeting for Sunday. It is about the “terrible murder of our fellow citizen by a terrorist who has committed an irreparable act in the name of an uncertain belief.”
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that the financial flows of some Islamist associations would be more strictly controlled. “There is a problem with the funding of a number of Islamist associations, we can and must do better here,” Le Maire told France 3 Television. He cited cryptocurrencies as an example.
