Samuel Paty

The man who beheaded a teacher in a street in France waited outside the school and asked pupils to identify his target, anti-terrorism officials say.

The man then posted images on social media of dead victim Samuel Paty, 47, who had shown controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students.

Proud of his handiwork, the Muslim murderer at once posted grisly images for his admirers. Imagine his interior monologue: “Here is the Infidel’s body, and over there is his head. Ha ha! Who says there is no fun in Islam? “

The attacker later fired at police with an airgun before being shot dead. Nine people have been arrested and are being investigated for possible links to Islamic extremism. The attack took place at about 17:00 (15:00 GMT) on Friday near the College du Bois d’Aulne, where Mr Paty taught, in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, some 30km (20 miles) north-west of central Paris.

Judging by the pictures of his mourning students, many of them were black but not, apparently, Muslim. Several of them have given moving testimony as to what a good, caring, and inspiring teacher Samuel Paty had been. Parents, too, have been stricken at the loss.

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.”….

No, Paty had been murdered not because he taught “freedom of expression” – all the middle-school teachers of history in France do that – but because he practiced it; he had dared to show cartoons of Muhammad as part of his lesson on “freedom of expression.” These are different things.

There should be a national day of mourning for Samuel Paty. But beyond this observance, with crowds marching, carrying signs, or wearing sweatshirts, that say “Je suis enseignant” (“I, too, am a teacher”) the Republic of France should create a national day of remembrance and reflection, honoring all those who are to be regarded as martyrs, murdered for exercising their rights of free speech. The cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, the history teacher Samuel Paty, and the others who will surely follow them, deserve this. And if Muslims don’t like this, if they think it is aimed at them – after all, it is only Muslims who have done the murdering — that’s too bad.

Details of the attack and investigation were given by the anti-terrorism state prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard.

He named the suspect as Abdoulakh A. – an 18-year-old man, born in Moscow of Chechen origin. He came to France with refugee status as a boy and was unknown to anti-terrorism police.

Why was Abdoulakh A., why were his 17-year-old younger brother, his parents, and his grandparents (other accounts tell us they all live in France) all given refugee status? Are Chechens persecuted in Moscow? No, they are not. Their economic lot is not a happy one, but that is very different from being faced with persecution. How did these obvious economic migrants convince French officials that they were fleeing a non-existent persecution? The final report by the anti-terrorism chief M. Jean-François Ricard will, one hopes, discuss how Abdoulakh A. and his family managed to be admitted to France, what claims of persecution were made and apparently believed, and what cornucopia of benefits these family members have collectively received from the French government since they first settled in.

Perhaps those who wish to enter France as immigrants should now be required to take a new psychological test before being admitted. If Christian, let them be given a cartoon of Christ and asked for their reaction. If Jewish, the same question, but this time about a caricature of Moses. And for Muslims – who are of course the real targets of such a test, for it is only they who have been murdering others for “blasphemy” — let them be asked to look at the very cartoons that Charlie Hebdo published and that Samuel Paty used in his lesson on free speech. They should have explained to them that these cartoons are protected in France as free speech, that they may be published far and wide, that they may even be used in their childrens’ schools as part of lessons in free speech. Some will answer untruthfully, that they don’t mind, they understand they have to conform to French ways. But many will be unable to contain themselves, and will truthfully, and angrily, denounce the caricatures; on that basis alone one hopes they will be kept out. And it should not be beyond the wit of the immigration authorities to come up with other lines of questioning to gauge the likelihood, or even the possibility, of a would-be immigrant’s ability to assimilate into a country of Infidels. Why not ask each Muslim asking to be admitted what he/she thinks of the Qur’anic verses that describe Muslims as the “best of peoples” (3:110) and non-Muslims as “the most vile of created beings” (98:6)? How that question is answered, how much taqiyya is tossed into the mix, should prove instructive. And why should other European countries not follow France’s example, and require the same tests of their Muslim immigrant applicants?

He [Abdoulakh A.] lived in the Normandy town of Évreux, about 100km (62 miles) from the murder scene and had no apparent connection with the teacher or the school. The man had been before courts but only on minor misdemeanour charges He went to the college [a middle school] on Friday afternoon and asked students to point out the teacher, Mr Ricard said. The attacker followed Mr Paty, who was heading home on foot after school, inflicted multiple wounds to the head with a knife and then beheaded the victim. Witnesses are said to have heard the attacker shout “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is Greatest.”.

After all these years, the BBC still can’t get the meaning of “Allahu Akbar” right. It does not mean “God is Greatest,” but rather, is in this context a Muslim supremacist war cry, meaning “Our God is greater than your god.” Among the thousands of BBC employees, is there no one who realizes this and can explain it to the bigshots at Bush House?

The man then posted photos of the victim to a Twitter account, along with insults to Mr Macron and French “infidels” and “dogs.”…

Not “photos of the victim,” but photos of the victim’s headless body and, nearby, his severed head. The BBC is presenting the scene as less grisly than it was. What fun for the murderer to show his fellow Muslims the result of his act of derring-do: “here is the Infidel’s torso, and over here – I hope you can see this clearly – his head.” And at the same time to curse not only the President of the Republic, but every last French infidel – the ones who have been supporting him and his relatives for many years — as “dogs.”

Mr Paty, a history and geography teacher, advised Muslim students to look away if they thought they might be offended.

According to other reports, Mr. Paty did not only suggest that Muslim students might want to look away, but that they could even leave the room if they so wished. He was solicitous of their feelings, not looking to disturb them. But he also had a lesson on free speech to give, according to the French curriculum. Clearly some of the students were out to upset him, for they reported their distress (fake or real) to their malevolent and dangerous parents. Which led to complaints, a call by a Muslim parent for him to be fired, and a video that was made and posted by one father, a video designed to whip up Muslim fury against the gentle teacher who had not expected such life-threatening malice.

A parent of one of the pupils reacted angrily to the incident, accusing Mr Paty of showing naked pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. The father lodged a formal complaint and produced videos demonstrating the anger at Mr Paty’s actions, and calling on people to go to the school to protest.

But he did not show “naked pictures” of Muhammad. He showed a caricature, not a picture; these are different things.

Furthermore, as others – but not the BBC — have reported, the child of this complaining parent was not even in class that day. The father had simply heard about the episode from another pupil, and decided to create as much anger among Muslims as he could. He first went to the principal and demanded that Mr. Paty be immediately fired. The principal stood by Mr. Paty. That’s when the video was made, and posted online, and a constant series of death threats began. As a precaution, Samuel Paty changed his walk home, so that instead of his usual path through woods, he walked in a residential area where he assumed the presence of many people would make an attack less likely.

The father is one of the people in custody, Mr Ricard said, adding that this man’s half-sister had joined the Islamic State organisation in Syria in 2014….

The father who made the video denouncing Mr. Paty, and thereby knowingly endangered him, should be prosecuted and imprisoned. It’s not only the killer himself who needs to be punished, but also those who were responsible for whipping him up.

Samuel Paty was determined to go through with the lesson on free speech, as part of civic education, a subject that was included in the national curriculum. The most recent, and most disturbing, assault on free speech in the advanced Western world has been the mass killing by the Kouachi brothers of 12 people, including 9 cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. They were murdered in 2015 for cartoons of Muhammad that the journal had dared to publish years before, a deliberate exercise of the right of free speech in defiance of what they knew would be Muslim anger, but could not possibly imagine — the cartoonists were French, they were the humorful civilized products of the advanced West — and while Stephane Charbonnier, the Charlie Hebdo editor, had said “I prefer to die standing to living on my knees,” one doubts that he realized just how primitive and evil were those who wished to silence him and his colleagues.

Now the Western world has had another horrifying example of Muslim barbarism. What will it do? Will there be solemn marches of French men and women carrying signs declaring “Je suis enseignant” in solidarity with the murdered teacher Samuel Paty? Will President Macron address the nation? Will there be a day of national mourning, or better still, the permanent observance of a day set aside to honor the martyred victims who practiced, taught about, and defended the right of free speech? Or will the fury die down, the signs of solidarity with Mr. Paty be put away? And will teachers all over France be very careful to avoid discussing anything that might in the slightest offend a Muslim, signifying that, despite all the expressions of outrage, the grobianistic barbarians now inside our countries will have won?