Samuel Patty: Secular France finds itself at a crossroads after an attack on a teacher.


Seventeen people were killed over secularism, Islamism and religious equality, and long-running tensions erupted. Anti-immigration rhetoric targeting France’s Muslim communities has become increasingly common. Since then, these divisions have only gotten worse with more attacks and subsequent consequences.

Last Friday, teacher Samuel Pati was beheaded in a terrorist attack in the northern Paris suburb of Ragni after a controversial demonstration. Charlie Hebdo gave cartoons to his students during a lesson, said anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Franકોois Ricard.

-Old-year-old assassinations have reignited the long-running struggle over secularism in France.

In early October, just days before Patti’s assassination, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “This fundamentalist Islamism is a systematic organization for violating the laws of the republic and creating parallel orders to raise other values.” Maron Kroen was speaking in Les Muroux, a northwestern suburb of Paris, where officials are working with the Muslim community to fight Islamist extremism.

Patti’s death had a devastating effect on France.

Macron paid tribute to the teacher, whom he said was “murdered because he taught students freedom of speech, freedom of belief and belief.”

Thousands gathered in and around the Place de la République in Paris on Sunday to celebrate free speech and decree violence. Similar emotional demonstrations took place across the country.

A national memorial service for Patty will be held Wednesday evening in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron is speaking after Patti's death on October 16.

Freedom of expression

Patty, who was 47, taught history and geography at the Collge du Bois de L લn. He used cartoons in the class of freedom of expression – the main motto of French life.

He warned Muslim students about the images in advance, giving them a chance to exit the session. However, the lesson sparked controversy in the weeks following her death, with one of the parents at the school lobbying for Patti’s dismissal.

On October 7, the parents posted a video on Facebook demanding action against the teacher. According to Jean-Franકોois Ricard, France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor, the man publicly identified Patty and the school demanded that he be fired.

A day later, the person complained about the class; PYT filed a defamation suit in return. On October 12, parents posted another video on YouTube targeting the teacher.

The man who killed Petty was a refugee of Chechen descent, identified as Abdullakh Abuizidovich. The 18-year-old reached out to students and asked them to show their prey, Ricard said in a statement Oct. 17. He went home after work. The teenager was not known for intelligence services.

Before police opened fire on him on Friday, Abozidovic posted on Twitter that he had hanged one of Macron’s “dogs of hell” who had betrayed the venerable prophet.

A woman holds a placard reading "I am a teacher" People gather at the port of Vix in Marseille on October 18 to pay tribute to history teacher Samuel Petty.

Love of lasciviousness

Secularism – known in French as “laceity” – is very much ingrained in French culture, with many believing that nothing – not a single religion – should come before national identity. However, for those who have faith, it is difficult to master these skills.

“She’s a working secularist,” Katherine Fiesta, director of the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary University in London, told CNN.

“Law City is a bourgeois republic, it’s a cross-party. This will cut across the spectrum – left-wing socialist democracy is just like religion in the public sphere. [those on the right.]”

Fishi said secularist laws have been intensifying since 1989. He believes the decision by extremists to crack down on extremists could be a positive step for most French Muslims, as the government chooses to focus on extremist organizations and hate speech rather than community unification.

“Macron has been growing more and more in the region since the summer,” he said. “They are talking about separation, not unification. They are attacking communities, not this. […] Vectors of hatred, which are trying to weaken these communities. They’re not referring to integration, it’s not conversation.

    On October 18, a woman posted a picture of Samuel Patty in Lille's Place de la Liberte.

“I think we can really see this as a turning point,” Fischi added, adding that the fact that Abuzidovich “is not from the former French colony … it gives, in many respects … the opportunity to experience French Muslim citizens. They are not being targeted. “

Crackdown on radical Islamism

Patty was killed just weeks after two people were seriously injured in a knife attack near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in Fiso.

The French state responded to Patti’s assassination with a booming move. Judicial sources told CNN that 15 people are being questioned about the attack. Those detained include parents who called for the teacher’s dismissal and family members of the attacker. Sources said students suspected of helping the culprit in identifying Patti were also in custody.

Moron Kroen and his government are quick to announce tough action against extremist Islamists.

On Tuesday, the president said French citizens – especially Muslims – needed to be protected from radical Islamism, which aims to “turn some of our citizens against the republic because of their religion. We will not allow this to happen.”

“These are actions that our citizens expect from us,” Macron said. “And these actions will be intensified.”

He said dozens of actions had been taken against organizations and individuals, “in other words, an ideology aimed at destroying the republic”, adding that an investigation into Patty’s beheading showed that some of these organizations were “involved in Friday’s attack.”

Further action will be announced in the coming days and weeks, Macron said.

On Monday, French Interior Minister Gerald Durmani said more than 80 hate-line hate messages would be investigated in the wake of Patti’s murder, adding that “the enemies of our republic will not even get a moment of relief.”

Darmani said on Twitter that 51 organizations and non-profit groups would be visited by state services this week, and some would be disbanded. The minister is also working to close a mosque in the northern suburbs of Paris. Dermany said his director was one of the people who ordered Patty to be threatened. The post also included the location of the school.

Religious discrimination

France is home to more than a million Muslims – the vast majority are not radical Islamists, but many are nonetheless influenced by the country’s secular laws.

A series of French laws have banned the way Muslim women have been dressed over the past two decades.

The hijab was banned in 2004 by Jewish schoolchildren and large Christian crosses in public schools. Burqas and niqabs covering the face were banned in 2011.

Legislators who supported the law, including then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the garment threatened French secularism and insulted women.

In a survey conducted by Polster iFop in 2019, more Questioned 0% French Muslims said they had experienced religious discrimination in the country at least once in their lives. In the same month, thousands marched through Paris in anti-Islam demonstrations, Reuters reported.
Three days after Samuel Patti's beheading, the head of the far-right Racembalement National Marine Le Pen speaks to the press.

The task that the Mac Cron now faces is of paramount importance.

That a Years away from the election, in which his main opponent is likely to be Marine Le Pen, he is a very fit politician who, after Patti’s death, called for the “abolition of Islamism” in France.

Macron has linked his move against radical Islamism to public messages of unity.

He said, “We shall live together without any distinction, because we are united by the same values, history, destiny and are first and foremost citizens.”

Zamira Rahim wrote in London, Pierre Barin and Melissa Bell reported from Paris. Pierre Buet, Martin Goilendiu, Barbara Vojazer, Gail Fourann Narier and Lindsay Isaac will contribute to the story.

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