[ad_1]
The beheading of a teacher had caused horror in France. On the first day of school after break, millions of students remembered the victim of terrorism. At the same time, there were again anti-French protests in Muslim countries.
In France, around twelve million schoolchildren have remembered the brutally murdered teacher Samuel Paty with a minute of silence. At the start of school after fall break, there were commemorative events for the 47-year-old, who was the victim of a terrorist attack. “We are France! We will stand together,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a message on social media.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer visited schools in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, where Paty had worked. The murdered teacher was also remembered in Germany, including the schools of Hamburg, Berlin and Hesse.
According to investigators, Paty was murdered by an 18-year-old in mid-October for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class on the subject of freedom of expression. His body was found decapitated. The act had caused great horror in France. Less than two weeks later, three people were killed in a knife attack at a church in Nice; here too, the prosecution assumes an Islamist attack.
Again protests in Muslim countries
Macron had defended freedom of expression and the publication of cartoons after Paty’s murder. This sparked protests in many Muslim countries. Around 400 people again demonstrated in front of the French embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, almost 10,000 people took to the streets. They called for a boycott of French products and the cessation of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and France. Some protesters burned photographs of Macron. The protesters marched from a large mosque towards the French embassy, but were stopped by security forces on the way.
Emirates and Abu Dhabi skip Macron
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took Macron under protection. “He doesn’t want Muslims in the West to be in ghettos and he is right,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargasch said of “Welt.” France has the right to find ways to integrate Muslims and fight militancy. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Said Al Nahjan, condemned the terrorist attacks in France in a phone call with Macron, according to the Emirati agency WAM.
Macron defended press freedom in an interview with the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera over the weekend. France is fighting terrorism committed in the name of Islam, but not Islam itself, he said. After three terrorist attacks in recent weeks with multiple deaths, the French government has stepped up the protection of schools and places of worship. For this, soldiers of the anti-terrorist mission “Sentinelle” are deployed.
