Epigraph
Every human life is precious and sacred and killing one is like triggering a genocide. (Al Quran 5:32/33)
France teacher had received ‘days of threats’ before his brutal killing
Source: BBC
The teacher who was beheaded in a street in France had received threats after showing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils, French media report.
He has been named as 47-year-old Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher.
Nine people have been arrested, including the parents of a child at Mr Paty’s school, judicial sources are quoted as saying.
Police say the attacker was an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin.
The killing took place while a trial is under way in Paris over a 2015 Islamist assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted for publishing the cartoons.
President Emmanuel Macron said the attack bore all the hallmarks of an “Islamist terrorist attack” and the teacher had been murdered because he “taught freedom of expression”.
Speaking at the scene hours after the incident, he stressed national unity. “They will not prevail, they will not divide us,” he said.
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Categories: Free Speech, hate speech, Interfaith tolerance, Law, Law and Religion, Muhammad, Muhammad, Prophet Muhammad, Secularism
Paris (CNN)A man decapitated a schoolteacher in a suburb of Paris on Friday afternoon and was later shot dead by police, France’s anti-terror prosecutor told CNN.
The victim’s body was found in Éragny-sur-Oise, northwest of the capital, according to the French National Anti-Terror Prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor’s office confirmed that the attacker was killed by police in the same area.
The victim was a teacher at a secondary school in the region of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, according to the prosecutor’s office. The teacher recently showed controversial caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed to his students, according to multiple French media outlets, including CNN affiliate BFMTV.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, some Muslim parents complained to the school about the slain teacher’s decision to use one or more of the cartoons as part of a discussion about the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/europe/paris-suburb-man-decapitated-intl/index.html
It takes a certain type of mentality to consider it amusing to insult or ‘take the micky’ out of someone with a disability, colour, or anything else that makes them a little dfferent, and that includes someones religious beliefs, especially if they’re visible. Those Charlie Hebdo images portrayed were in very poor taste and unnecessary, and were bound to upset Muslims, which was obviously the intention. Why I don’t know, but no doubt to do with increasing numbers of Muslims in the country. (Anti-Semitism is also rife). What that teacher was trying to achieve is questionable. But that does not justify the extreme reaction of those fanatics. There have been similar images about Jesus, and in such cases it’s best to ‘turn the other cheek’, as per the Christian teachings.
“It takes a certain type of mentality to consider it amusing to insult or ‘take the micky’ out of someone with a disability, colour, or anything else that makes them a little dfferent, and that includes someones religious beliefs, especially if they’re visible.”
It’s the mentality of a free, liberal, progressive, tolerant, and civilised society. I would also respectfully disgaree with your conflation of ‘insulting’ people with a disability and ‘insulting’ a system of beliefs (beliefs don’t have feelings, btw). People do not choose disability; they do choose to subscribe to or value certain beliefs. No belief is above scrutiny, ridicule, criticism, or mockery. The reason the most progressive, tolerant, and liberal societies are that way is because they have taken on and challenged beliefs throughout the ages. In contrast, the least progressive, most intolerant societies in the world do not accept this – if you don’t toe the line, expect to be locked up, disappeared, or killed – including by the state.
No one – not one single person – has the right to go through life not being offended. It’s time to grow up I’m afraid. Your comment suggests you’re part of the “I’m not condoning murder, BUT…” brigade. Shameful, not to mention dangerous.
Murder is reprehensible. it is a crime with no justification. Should be punished to the full extent of the law.
In response to Ak’s comment. I think you have misunderstood my comment. This matter has been the subject of a great deal of discourse these past few days. I will narrow it down to ‘Freedom of Speech is not a licence to insult or humiliate others’, rather it means that we are not bound to silence to express our thoughts and opinions. And I never even mentioned ‘murder’, so why you should state that my comment suggests that I’m part of the ‘I’m not condoning murder, BUT…’ brigade, is totally inappropriate. I’ll leave it there.