Teacher who showed Mohammed caricatures in class beheaded

In Conflans Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), a suburb northwest of Paris, a man was beheaded in the street on Friday. The perpetrator is said to have shouted “Allah Akbar”, reports Le Parisien.

According to the newspaper, it is an eighteen-year-old Chechen. The victim, Samuel P., was a history teacher who recently showed caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in class. The perpetrator was shot by the police. Four family members of the Chechen – including a minor – have been arrested. President Emmanuel Macron calls the teacher the victim of “a clear Islamist-inspired terror attack.”

The suspected perpetrator was carrying a kitchen knife and threatened the police several hundred meters further in the nearby town of Eragny-sur-Oise. They had been summoned because a suspicious individual was rummaging around a school. According to reports from several media, the threats caused the police to open fire several times, which cost the man his life.

The facts took place near a school around 5 pm. After the murder, the perpetrator threatened the police with a knife and was shot. The police have requested that the scene of the beheading and shooting be avoided. The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office is responsible for the investigation.

Initial findings indicate that the victim, a history teacher, recently taught his students a lesson on freedom of speech, Le Parisien writes. During that class, he is said to have shown Mohammed cartoons. Afterward, the teacher received threats from parents, who asked the school to fire the man. The teacher had filed a complaint with the police.

According to Le Parisien, the suspect would have shouted “Allah Akbar”, it would be an eighteen-year-old Chechen. He had a knife with him, and a gun was found next to him. The man reportedly posted a gruesome video showing the severed head just before he was shot, Le Parisien reports.

The demining service has also come to the scene to investigate whether the man was not wearing an explosives belt, several media reported.

Terror

French President Emmanuel Macron, like Prime Minister Jean Castex, has arrived on the scene. According to Macron, the teacher was the victim of “a clear Islamist-inspired terror attack”. “One of our citizens was murdered today for teaching, for teaching students about freedom of speech,” Macron said. He also noted that “obscurantism will never win” and that the “whole nation” is on the side of the teachers to “protect” them.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has returned from Morocco to the crisis center in his ministry to meet with Macron and Prime Minister Jean Castex. The fight against Islamist terrorism is one of Macron’s priorities, and Prime Minister Jean Castex’s central government. For years, France has suffered from Islamist attacks that have already claimed more than 250 people’s lives.

Charlie Hebdo

In 2015, 12 people were killed in a terrorist attack on the satirical Charlie Hebdo. This happened shortly after the magazine published cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.

Last month there was a stabbing incident at the magazine’s former office. That was shortly after the magazine published caricatures of Mohammed again for the lawsuit against those involved in the terror attack.