PARIS (Reuters) – A man stabbed to death a college history teacher in France who showed his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims consider blasphemous, officials said on Friday French
The attacker was shot dead by a police patrol a few streets from the scene of the attack on Friday afternoon, in a residential suburb northwest of Paris
« One of our fellow citizens was murdered today because he was teaching, he was teaching students about freedom of expression, » French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at the scene of the attack
The incident echoed the attack five years ago on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo It published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing divisions that still cast a veil over French society
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Victim of Friday’s attack suffered multiple knife wounds to his neck, police official said.A police source said the teacher was beheaded in the attack
French channel BFMTV reported that the alleged attacker was 18 years old and born in Moscow
A police source said witnesses heard the attacker shouting « Allahu Akbar » or « God is the greatest » A police spokesman said the information was being verified
The attack took place in the street in front of the college where the victim worked, in the suburb of Conflans Sainte-Honorine
According to French media, the teacher who was killed earlier this month showed students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a civic education class on freedom of expression
A Twitter thread posted on October 9 contained a video of a man saying his daughter, a Muslim, was one of the students in the class and that she was shocked and upset by the teacher’s actions
The man in the video urged Twitter users to complain to authorities and have the teacher removed from his post Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video
In recent years, France has seen a series of violent attacks by Islamist militants, including the Charlie Hebdo killings in 2015, as well as bombings and shootings in November 2015 in Bataclan theater and sites around Paris that killed 130 people
Less than a month ago, a man from Pakistan used a meat cleaver to attack and injure two people who were on a cigarette break outside the offices where Charlie Hebdo was based at the time of the 2015 attack
The issue of cartoons was revived last month when Charlie Hebdo decided to repost them to coincide with the start of the trial of accomplices in the 2015 attack
Al-Qaeda, the militant Islamist group that claimed responsibility for the killings, threatened to attack Charlie Hebdo again after reposting the cartoons
The magazine said last month it published to assert his right to free speech and to show that he would not be intimidated by violent attacks This position has been supported by many leading French politicians and public figures
Reacting to Friday’s attack in front of the school, Charlie Hebdo wrote on his Twitter account: “Intolerance has crossed a new threshold and does not seem to give in to anything by imposing its terror on our country »
Report by Geert De Clercq and Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Toby Chopra and Rosalba O’Brien
All quotes have been delayed by at least 15 minutes See here for a full list of exchanges and delays
Terrorism, France
News from the world – GB – Teacher stabbed to death in France after showing classroom caricatures of Prophet Mohammad
SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com
