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History teacher Samuel Paty (47) was assaulted and beheaded near the high school where he taught on Friday.
In a school lesson on freedom of expression, Paty had shown the controversial cartoons of Muhammad printed by the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. Freedom of expression has become part of the calendar after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
Several of the students’ parents responded and many believe it is blasphemous to display a description of the Prophet.
DEMONSTRATION: New celebration in one of the suburbs of Paris after the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty (47).
Several thousand gathered in France on Sunday to remember the high school teacher who was killed. Police believe the killing was a militant Islamist attack.
On Tuesday, there are demonstrations again in Paris.
Anine Kierulf, special adviser to the Norwegian Institute for Human Rights, says that it is impossible to explain freedom of expression without referring to disagreeable and controversial statements.
Anine Kierulf, Special Advisor to the Norwegian Institute for Human Rights.
– It is clearly the duty of the teacher to expose pupils and students to unpleasant expressions. It would be very strange to explain the cartoon dispute without showing the cartoons they were talking about, Kierulf tells NRK.
Needed to explain freedom of expression.
Kierulf doesn’t expect teachers now to feel intimidated and dare not show cartoons or statements to their students.
– If we give in to that kind of fear, it is the same as saying that the terrorists win. Because terror is creating fear. If we let them do that, at the expense of expressing ourselves in the way that we believe is correct and in which we are allowed to express ourselves, then it will be a defeat for democracy, says Kierulf.
Kierulf believes that it is important to show what has created controversy throughout history and why it has done so.
– Not only do they have to be cartoons, there is an incredible amount of horror that has happened throughout history that students and students should know, he adds.
Kierulf says there are few outlets that reproduce the caricature that he was supposed to show in his teaching.
– It is conceivable that he is simply very considerate. But it is not always the media that are so considerate, what is consideration and what drives fear in the media? The same question can come up in the classroom.
Free to view Muhammad cartoons
– Norwegian teachers can show Muhammad cartoons in teaching if they think it is relevant.
This is what the Minister of Education and Integration Guri Melby (V) says.
Melby believes that it is terrifying that a teacher can be killed for showing a cartoon in teaching.
– This teacher did an important job preparing students to participate in democracy and use freedom of expression. The fact that he is killed because he does just that is terrifying and terrible. Freedom of expression and human rights are paramount values in the Norwegian curriculum, Melby said at Dagsnytt 18 on Monday night.
The teacher is free to show cartoons of Muhammad, for example, if he thinks it is relevant, according to Melby.
