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“Serious and cruel news about the terrorist act in #France. We must unite against attacks on freedom of thought and enlightenment,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning, after the assassination of the teacher in Paris who he had shown the students a cartoon of Muhammad.
Serious and cruel news about the terrorist act in #France. We must unite against attacks on freedom of thought and enlightenment. My thoughts go out to the victim’s loved ones, colleagues, and students.
– Erna Solberg (@erna_solberg) October 17, 2020
The message sparked strong reactions on social media, where many have criticized the Prime Minister for a weak defense of freedom of expression. Among the sharpest critics is Sylvi Listhaug (FrP).
“WHAT IS ERNA DRIVING WITH?” Listhaug wrote on his Facebook page Monday morning.
“Freedom of thought ?? Who can take away our freedom of thought? (…) Why is Islamist terror not mentioned in a word? The fear of the government of being touched has completely taken hold,” said the leader FRP deputy, and noted that Foreign Minister Ina Eriksen Søreide (H) and Prime Minister Erna Solberg had posted the same message on Twitter.
Read also: The beheading in Paris: – It’s about freedom of expression itself.
Fought back
“We must never take freedom of expression for granted. We are constantly reminded that the last thing we need is cowardly politicians who dare not defend Norwegian values. It’s time to take the magazine out of your mouth to say it like it is, Erna.” Listhaug concluded in the post, which during the day had been shared more than 500 times.
Erna Solberg retaliated against the criticism with a post on her own blog Monday afternoon.
“In a comment on Twitter, I wrote that we must unite against attacks on freedom of thought and enlightenment. Many have interpreted this to mean that I do not think this was also an attack on freedom of expression. It is silly,” writes the Prime Minister in the post.
also read: Satirists hailed for insults, shock and discomfort (+)
«I have condemned the Islamist terrorist murder of Samuel Paty. It was not only an atrocious attack on the victim, but also an attack on democracy, freedom of expression and our democratic values, ”says the Prime Minister, and explains his original twitter message with:
“Freedom of thought, on the one hand, and freedom of expression and enlightenment, on the other, are inextricably linked. There is no freedom of thought, there is no freedom of expression and information.”
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Fatwa announced
Professor Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded Friday night in what French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macon has called “an Islamist terrorist attack.” Paty, who was a teacher at a school in a Paris suburb, had shown her schoolchildren cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from Charlie Hebdo magazine. It is then said that the local Islamists announced a fatwa against the teacher.
An 18-year-old man of Chechen origin was shot to death by police during an arrest after the murder, and the prosecution has designated the 18-year-old as the perpetrator.
French police carried out raids on the homes of several Islamist militants on Monday and 15 people have been arrested after the killing, NTB writes. Of those arrested, four are students, French news agency AFP reports Monday night.
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