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A history teacher beheaded outside his high school in a Paris suburb on Friday after he reportedly showed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to his students.
Samuel Paty, 47, who taught history and geography at the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine school, northwest of the French capital, was attacked on Friday night by an 18-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police. shortly after.
Earlier this month, Paty reportedly showed a class of teenage students a cartoon from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo during a moral and civic education class discussion about freedom of expression, prompting an angry response from several parents who had demanded his resignation. Before presenting the cartoon, the teacher would have invited the Muslim students to leave the classroom if they so wished.
Subsequently, the father of a 13-year-old girl who did not drop out of class posted a video on YouTube claiming that the teacher had shown a “photo of a naked man” claiming that he was the “Muslim prophet.” The father asked other parents to join him in a class action against the teacher, whom he described as a “bully“(bully).
To calm the situation, the school organized a meeting between the principal, the teacher and an official from the educational authority.
The 18-year-old murderer, who was born in Moscow and reported to be from Chechnya, attacked Paty as she was leaving school and beheaded him with a large kitchen knife. He then took a photo of his victim and posted it, with a message for French President Emmanuel Macron signed “Abdullah the Servant of Allah”, on social media.
Witnesses said the killer shouted “Allahu Akbar” and then ran off chased by the police. He was shot and killed after refusing to surrender. Officers said they fired at least 10 times after the attacker threatened them.
Macron visited the scene of the attack on Friday night. “One of our compatriots was killed today because he taught the students freedom of expression, the freedom to believe and not to believe,” he said. “This was a cowardly attack on our compatriot. He was the victim of a typical Islamist terrorist attack. “
Nine people were questioned by police on Saturday, including members of the attacker’s family, including his grandfather and 17-year-old brother.
The antiterrorist prosecutor has opened an investigation into “murder linked to a terrorist organization and association with terrorist criminals.”
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer will meet with parent and teacher representatives on Saturday and is expected to then deliver a message of solidarity to all school staff and students’ families. Counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard is also expected to make a statement on Saturday.
A Paris court is currently prosecuting 14 people in connection with the January 2015 killings at Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, and the shooting and killing of a police officer. Three weeks ago, a man with a knife stabbed two members of a television production company in front of the former Charlie Hebdo offices in response to the newspaper’s decision to republish the controversial cartoons, originally printed in 2015, to mark the opening. of the trial.
Charlie Hebdo staff released a statement after Friday’s murder expressing their “horror and revulsion.”
On social media, parents paid tribute to the teacher. “RIP Monsieur Paty. He was my son’s teacher last year. He was a man of great humanity, ”wrote one.
The hashtag #JeSuisProf (I am a teacher) was spread on social media on Saturday. It’s reminiscent of #JeSuisCharlie, which emerged as a global wave of support for the journalists and staff of Charlie Hebdo killed in 2015.
