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Key points
- Thousands of people gathered to pay tribute to the murdered teacher
- Macron also hinted that other groups will disband in the coming days.
Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday named a militant Islamic group directly responsible for the beheading of the high school history teacher, who had discussed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad with his class. Macron said the group will disband on Wednesday even when his government ordered the closure of the mosque that conveyed the teacher’s complaint. Macron also hinted that other radical associations and organizations are also on the list to be silenced.
More than 1,000 people gathered at the site where Samuel Paty, the teacher, was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee born in Moscow on Friday. Paty had just left school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris, when he was killed. The killer, identified as Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot and killed by the police.
History teacher showed cartoons of the prophet of Islam
Paty had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in her class earlier this month. French authorities also ordered the closure of the Pantin mosque for transmitting a message on social media from the father of a student who had complained about Paty. In the complaint, the father quoted his 13-year-old daughter as saying that the teacher had asked the Muslims to leave the classroom.
On Tuesday, Macron reiterated that he wants “tangible results” to combat “an ideology of destruction of the (French) Republic.” He further said that the dissolution of the group will be ordered, the Cheikh Yassine Collective, even as its founder, who created the group in the early 2000s, naming it after the slain Palestinian leader of Hamas, was being questioned by the police regarding with crime.
“A national commemorative event will be held Wednesday evening to pay tribute to Paty in the courtyard of the Sorbonne University, a centennial symbol of the spirit of the Enlightenment and a forum to express ideas and freedoms,” said the presidency French, AP reported.
