Beheading a conscientious teacher

President Emmanuel Macron boldly and precisely branded the recent beheading of a teacher in Paris an ‘Islamist terrorist attack’. It was just two weeks previous that the President had unveiled a plan to combat the threat of Islamist separatism in France. Protests broke out all over France and even we, so far removed, felt shock and dismay at the killing of an innocent teacher. Not only are these Islamic terrorists cruel and ruthless, they are also degraded in their revenge taking. Why behead a man instead of shooting him? I suppose their belief is that greater benefits accrue for the after-life of a jihadist if he draws blood from his victim.

The criminal and instigators

Samuel Paty, a 47 year old teacher who colleagues say was dedicated to his job, was beheaded on Friday 16 October outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the northern suburbs of Paris, by an 18-year-old Chechen Muslim – Abdoulakh Abouydovich Anzorov, who was subsequently shot dead by police. Paty’s ‘crime’ was enhancing his lesson on freedom of expression by showing two cartoons from the Hebdo collection supposedly of Prophet Muhammad. He had taken the precaution of asking his 13 year old students who did not wish to see the pictures to look away or leave the class temporarily.

The attacker was born in Chechnya but had been living in the town of Evreux, northwest of Paris. He was not previously known to the intelligence services. He had stalked the school and asked students about Paty and then committed that horrific killing with a sword. Investigators found a message planning the attack on the suspect’s cell phone, written a few hours before the attack.

Fifteen people, including four schoolchildren, are being held by the police over the incident, one of whom has previously been convicted for terrorism-related crimes and admitted to having had contact with the Chechen. The other is a father of a student in Paty’s class who actually activated the crime by posting a video on social media claiming that the teacher had shown an image of a naked man and told his students it was “the prophet of the Muslims”. He called on other angry parents to contact him and relay the message. An activist did so and they apparently launched a ‘fatwa’ against the teacher.

The visual aid

To enhance the impact of his lesson on freedom of expression to 13 year olds, Teacher Paty had shown controversial cartoons that Charlie Hebdo (French for Charlie Weekly), a French satirical magazine had featured in 2012, cartoons in which Prophet Muhammad was satirised. These had already caused much damage: violent protests by Islamists even in the Netherlands, and the magazine’s office in Paris attacked in 2011, 2015, and 2020. In the second attack, 12 people were killed, including publishing director Charb and several other prominent cartoonists.

Charlie Habdo

was inaugurated as an anti-racist, atheist, secular, satirical magazine publishing articles, cartoons, reports, polemics and even jokes on religion, politics and culture in 1970. It stopped production for a while and resumed publishing. Serious trouble for it started when it published cartoons satirizing Prophet Muhammad, because many Muslims believe any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. Further, with IS and Islamic militancy increasing and the attack on the office of Charlie Habdo, schools and institutions in 20 countries had to be temporarily closed.

We also remember the uproar in France over banning of Islamic headgear worn by school girls. These are migrant Muslim people who have settled down in European countries and then call the tune and demand continuing their religious/cultural practices in spite of them being considered interfering with normal societal life.

The resultant protests in Paris have been extensive. Teachers carry banners proclaiming “I am a teacher” defiantly and also echoing signs that were carried when protesting attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris: “I am a Charlie”.

(References:

foreign newspaper articles; mainly NY Times 17 October article Suspect stalked French school before beheading; officials say by Novimitsu Oushi and Constant Mehart)

Back home

We remember with dread the many swords that were discovered by the police in Islamist homes and mosques. At the time we wondered why the swords. Muslim householders and mosque leaders when questioned came up with the absurdly ludicrous explanation they were to trim lawns or defend women of the home.

The truth of the matter could be what a group of us who were to holiday in Negombo and decided to go to the Katuwapitiya Church, two months after the destruction, were told. A Roman Catholic priest was showing two foreigners around. He spoke to us too and then said that the many discovered swords were to be used to decapitate Christian and other protestors who were expected to rise up in anger after the 21 April massacre. The ruse of the Islamist terrorists was double edged: cause destruction to churches and starred hotels and cause a backlash. Those who took to the streets were to be attacked and beheaded with the swords made and collected. Thus all praise to the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, other priests and the police for keeping people subdued and preventing this further bloodshed.