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Even five days after the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty, France hardly knows another topic: the threat of terror and the influence of Islam in the school institution, which in the neighboring country is one of the pillars of the republic.
The alleged Islamist attack on Paty, 47, has completely left behind the other big problem, the health emergency imposed a week ago due to the pandemic.
In a tribute to Paty, Brigitte Macron explained what the teaching profession is all about. In the words of the head of state’s wife, everyone who stands in front of school classes tries to “open doors” to students. Teachers have to develop the “critical spirit” of students, wrote the “Première Dame”, which she herself had taught French and Latin.
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In France, the principle of separation of religion and state has been in force since 1905. When it comes to upholding this principle of secularism, teaching staff in schools seem to face more and more problems.
In an interview with the newspaper “Le Parisien”, a primary school teacher from the Val d’Oise department in northern France complained that she had been criticized by a Muslim father for asking students to list the animals of a farm put the word “pig” in the mouth. The teacher then refrained from reporting the incident because she could not expect any support from her superiors, the person in question reported.
Seven people brought before the judge
Samuel Paty had shown cartoons of Mohammed from the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” to illustrate the issue of freedom of expression in a class in a suburb of Paris and was the victim of a smear campaign on the Internet. The alleged perpetrator, an 18-year-old with Chechen roots, was shot and killed by police in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine last Friday.
Seven people were brought before a counterterrorism judge on Wednesday. Among them was the father of a schoolgirl who had started the smear campaign on the Facebook online network.
The man’s daughter had falsely told her father that the teacher had shown her a nude photo of Mohammed. According to the current state of the investigation, the girl had not even been present at the lesson in question. The father had received a call from the alleged killer after his online tirades. Before the terrorist attack, the two had contact through the WhatsApp online service.
The Islamist Sefrioui is known to the security authorities.
Islamist militant Abdelhakim Sefrioui, known to security authorities since the 1990s, was also questioned on Wednesday. He posted a video after speaking with the school administration in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. In it he had stated that he had demanded the “immediate release” of Paty. Sefrioui is one of the driving forces behind the pro-Palestinian collective Cheikh Yassine, whose dissolution was ordered by the government on Wednesday.
The death of the history professor in France now opens the same wounds that many hoped would finally heal with the current trial for the 2015 attack on “Charlie Hebdo” magazine. Instead, well-known discussions are emerging about the actual and rather supposed self-isolation of Muslims in French society.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin was “surprised” that grocery store shelves were arranged in such a way as to specifically target members of individual religious communities. By that he meant the separation of kosher and halal products. The Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, responded with the wry observation that he also goes to the shelf with regional culinary products from Brittany when he does his shopping.
Marine Le Pen awaits her chance in 2022
Despite these attempts at appeasement, the signs point to a political confrontation. The president of the extreme right “Rassemblement National”, Marine Le Pen, called for an increase in funds for the police and gendarmerie in view of the attack. At the same time, he called for an “immediate moratorium on immigration and naturalization.”
Today’s president, Emmanuel Macron, managed to beat Marine Le Pen off the field in the second round of the 2017 presidential election. Le Pen is now more determined than ever to run for the next presidential election in 2022.
