The debate is heated by this terrible event, which represents a new blow to Islamist radicalism on French soil, this time committed by a Chechen political refugee

France announces a national tribute to the beheaded teacher for showing Mohammed cartoons in class

photo_camera AFP/PHILIPPE WOJAZER - The President of France, Emmanuel Macron

France will organise a national tribute to Samuel Paty, the high school history teacher who was killed by a Chechen Islamist radical for teaching images of Mohammed in class. The new wave of religious radicalism in the French nation has once again generated a major debate on education and social acceptance of certain behaviours related to fanaticism and religion, in this case Islam; and also on the law against separatism announced by President Emmanuel Macron to confront certain sectors that are trying to break away from the values of equality and culture promoted by the French Republic in order to split it up. 

While various spontaneous demonstrations are multiplying throughout the country in memory of Samuel Paty, the government led by Emmanuel Macron is planning, together with the family, an event on 21 October to pay tribute to the teacher killed at the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine school (50 km northwest of Paris) by a Chechen political refugee for religious reasons. The event will serve to confirm and strengthen national unity against subversive Islamism and Muslim separatism.

For their part, several civic associations and those defending freedom of expression called for a march this Sunday in the centre of Paris. A meeting of the Defence Council will also be held at the Elysée Palace to study possible measures to defend the secularism of French public education against Islamic radicalism.

Emmanuel Macron went to the site of the attack in the last hours and met with the colleagues of the murdered teacher. On leaving, he clearly stated that it was "an Islamist terrorist attack" in which the teacher "was killed because he taught, because he explained to his students freedom of expression, freedom to believe and freedom not to believe.

The leader of the Republic had justified the tribute in advance for a clear reason: "A Frenchman, a teacher, was killed because he taught freedom in school. The tribute is intended as a basic moral, civic and political response focused on combating Muslim "separatism", which is linked to Islamic and terrorist Jihadism. 

The attack and its brutality (the teacher was beheaded by the Chechen radical) show "precisely what the terrorists cannot stand: that awareness is awakened in schools", since "they promote stupidity, ignorance and hatred", the French justice minister said.

The perpetrator of the Islamic terrorist attack had refugee status and was not known to the intelligence services, although he had a certain criminal record, according to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard. The attacker, named Abdoullakh Abouyezidvitch, was born in Moscow 18 years ago and was a Russian of Chechen origin, Ricard said in a statement to the press in which he reviewed the main elements of the ongoing investigation.

Abouyezidvitch was killed by the police shortly after carrying out the attack. Nine others are in custody at the moment, including the parents, grandfather and younger brother of the perpetrator (also Chechen refugees), as well as an imam, the father of a pupil at the school where it all happened, and another man with whom they launched a mobilisation against the teacher for showing two satirical cartoons of Mohammed in class. Ricard pointed out that a half-sister of the father of the offender joined Daesh in Syria in 2014 and is the subject of an arrest warrant. The arrested imam is a Frenchman of Moroccan origin named Abdel Hakim Sefrioui, known for his fanatical radicalism. According to several police sources, Sefrioui is on file with the security services for having organised the persecution and attempted murder of other imams who support dialogue with Catholics and Jews.

The terrorist had a minor police record for acts that occurred when he was a minor, but he was not the subject of interest from the information services that pursue Islamic radicalism in the country.

France is discovering with great concern the growing presence of very violent Russian (Chechen), Pakistani and Turkish Muslims who are joining Jihadists of a more traditional origin such as the Maghreb or other areas of Africa and the Middle East.

France mobilises to defend its secular school against Islamism

The French government mobilised on Saturday to defend its secular public education and its model of values in the face of the murder of the teacher who showed cartoons of Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression.

"The State will protect teachers," said Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer in a video message after meeting with representatives of teachers and parents. The teacher "was killed for what he embodied: knowledge in the service of a critical spirit" and for the training of "free citizens", he added.

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