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This week’s Agenda addresses the situation in France after the brutal murder of history teacher Samuel Paty just over a week ago. In her teaching, it is said that Paty showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The police describe the murder as a terrorist act. There have been large demonstrations in support of freedom of expression and secularism, and the authorities have closed mosques and banned associations.
– People are disgusted by the amount of lies, stupidity, ignorance and manipulation behind an 18-year-old who beheads a stranger on the street, says the French ambassador to Sweden, Etienne de Gonneville.
At the same time, showing pictures, images of the Prophet Muhammad is something that many Muslims, and not just radical Muslims, find very offensive. Is it something you should show respect for, and if so, in what way?
– It is very interesting that you ask that question. People rarely realize how accused and morally unclear your question is. It is not your question, of course, but it is a question that many people ask.
– This is the trap that Islamists have liked, says Etienne de Gonneville and continues:
– The conversation, in this interview, is about the beheading of a French teacher. Now it moves on to something else, namely a debate apparently about religion, about insulting a religion and blaspheming, which is not a crime in France.
– But the discussion is about an act of terrorism. This is not an alleged blasphemy or a drawing. Al Qaeda constantly uses Charlie Hebdo cartoons in their propaganda to shift the conversation from terrorism to something else.
