Murder of Samuel Paty
The murder of Samuel Paty was a terrorist attack that took place on 16 October 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris. Paty was a French secondary school teacher, and he was killed and then beheaded by an Islamist terrorist, Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov. Anzorov killed Paty after a "hate campaign" on social media.[1][2] A student at the school where Paty taught lied about Paty's teaching, and the student's father started the hate campaign.[3]
Paty showed his students Charlie Hebdo's 2012 cartoons showing Muhammad in a class on freedom of speech.[4][5][6] A girl who was not in the class lied about what the teacher taught, and her father made a complaint to the police.[3] He also started the internet "hate campaign" against Paty that caused Anzorov to kill Paty.[1][3][7] The murder happened during the trial of other terrorists who were part of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015.[7]
The killers in the 2015 shooting were against Charlie Hebdo's 2012 cartoons showing Muhammad.[7] After Paty showed these cartoons in a class about freedom of speech, an Islamist imam wrote a fatwa (an opinion on Muslim law) against Paty which called for his punishment.[8] Anzorov killed Paty and put a picture of his head on Twitter.[6][7] Many of Paty's students saw the picture.[7] Anzorov said that he had "executed" Paty and addressed his words and the picture of Paty's head to Emmanuel Macron, the president of the French Republic.[9] The police shot Anzorov dead a few minutes after the murder.[9]
President Macron said that the event was "a typical Islamist terrorist attack", and that "our compatriot was killed for teaching children freedom of speech".
Events before the murder
On 6 October, Samuel Paty was teaching a lesson on dilemmas.[2] The lesson was about the magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of Muhammad and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.[2] (In January 2015, Islamist terrorists attacked the office of the magazine and killed 12 people.)[2] Paty showed the class of 13- and 14-year-olds the cartoons but said that Muslim students, who might be shocked, could close their eyes or leave the room if they wanted.[10]
A 13-year-old girl at Paty's school was often truant and failed to go to her lessons.[2] Because of her absences, the school suspended the girl.[2] She did not want her father, Brahim Chnina, to know about her bad behaviour.[2] On 8 October the girl lied to her father that Paty had ordered Muslim students in his lesson on 6 October to leave the room.[2] She said the teacher then showed the other students "a photograph of the Prophet naked".[2] She said that Paty sent her home for two days because she disagreed with him.[2] The girl was not in the lesson.[2]
Brahim Chnina, the girl's father, was 48 years old and was born in Morocco.[2] When his daughter told him her story, Chnina made an angry video which he put on Facebook.[2] In the video, he demanded that the school fire Paty from his job.[2] Chnina made another angry video in which he accused Paty of "discrimination".[2] Chnina made complaints to the school and to the police.[2] He said Paty was "diffusing a pornographic image".[2] Chnina said that Paty had ordered Muslim students to lift their hands and then leave the room while Paty showed the class the image.[10] Chnina also said there was Islamophobia at the school.[2] He said that other parents should help him force the school to fire Paty.[10] He sent these videos to the organization Collective Against Islamophobia in France (French: Collectif Contre l'islamophobie) and to his local mosque.[10] Chnina said the same things on radio as well.[10]
