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Today, at La Sorbonne & in all cities, #France pays a national tribute to #SamuelPaty, the teacher beheaded after an online Islamist mob against him bc he wanted to discuss freedom of speech, freedom of religion & used #CharlieHebdo’s cartoons. A thread: #HommageSamuelPaty
1/ The event: the best account I have read in English is this article by @john_lichfield. https://unherd.com/2020/10/is-frances-secularism-worth-dying-for/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3
2/ #Terrorism in #France: this killing is the latest of 19 terrorist attacks in France since 2012. These attacks have to date killed 264 persons. 32 attacks have been averted by the police since 2017. https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/depuis-2012-263-personnes-sont-mortes-dans-des-attentats-islamistes-en-france-20191007
3/ The victims: French people of all backgrounds have been targeted: 3 soldiers, a Jewish school teacher & 3 pupils in 2012, #CharlieHebdo’s team, officers Ahmed Merabet & Clarissa Jean-Philippe, clients of a Jewish deli, the #Bataclan crowd in 2015, #Nice citizens in 2016...
4/ The attack: the murderer of Samuel Paty confirms the pattern of isolated knife attacks against highly symbolic targets, as opposed to large scale attacks like the Bataclan in Nov. 2015.
5/ The killer: Abdulhak A. (18) was Russian from Chechnya. Wether he received support isn't clear yet but the Attorney said the father who started the mob had been in contact with him. @MatthieuSuc wrote that the father's step sister joined #ISIS in 2014. https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/201020/conflans-l-ombre-des-attentats-du-13-novembre-et-de-l-hyper-cacher?onglet=full
6/ Propaganda: As my colleague @azelin pointed out in @Jihadology_Net, #CharlieHebdo continued to be an important issue for #AlQaeda. AQAP, which was responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015, put out a statement a month ago against its cartoons. https://jihadology.net/2020/09/10/new-statement-from-al-qaidah-in-the-arabian-peninsula-support-for-the-prophet
7/ Judiciary response: 7 people are going to be presented to the judge to answer questions about their support to the killer. The association run by the Islamist activist, A. Sefrioui, who instigated the online mob against the teacher, will be shut down. https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1318942736238694400?s=20
8/ Political response: as @PedderSophie noted, the fact that this attack was triggered by a mob launched by French Islamists echoes a speech made by the French President earlier this month to reinvest in public services where Islamists have taken roots. https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/10/18/the-beheading-of-a-teacher-will-harden-frances-belief-in-secularism
9/ The speech on “separatisms”: while a lot of people have mistakenly reacted to the one tweet they saw about that speech, @N_Henin analysed the details for you. https://eeradicalization.com/what-is-emmanuel-macrons-project-against-separatism-about/
9/a/ Background: the speech is in line with Republican secularism ( #laïcité). It recalled the religious neutrality of thz State as well as the framework of dialog between the State and religious orga to manage security & public health while not intervening in religious matters.
9/b/« The land of Voltaire protects the right to believe, and not to believe, as well as the right to treat any sacred belief with irreverence. » https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/10/18/the-beheading-of-a-teacher-will-harden-frances-belief-in-secularism
10/a/ Goal: the speech made a clear distinction btw protecting freedom of religion, in particular for French Muslims (training imams, Islamic studies, managing places of worship…), while pushing back against attempts to circumvent French law, from Islamists but not only...
10/b/ It’s about a better control of foreign religious influence, a clearer framework for French Muslim organizations, more investment in Education, housing, fighting discriminations. e.g. 40 new community centers and 300 local public service centers in working class areas.
11/ Next step: Because it was triggered by radical Islamist activism, the beheading of a schoolteacher will necessarily influence the coming discussions of the law presented in the speech at the Parliament. Hate speeches online are an even bigger issue now.
12/ #CharlieHebdo: the title of CH to republish its cartoons during the trial of their murders was « tout ça pour ça » ("all this (killings), because of this (cartoons)"). This feeling grows: A teacher was beheaded for doing his work. #Toutçapourça
13/ As #SamuelPaty also becomes a “Republican Martyr”, the cheeky & rebellious newspaper #CharlieHebdo turns more & more into a solemn icon carrying a simple message: in a democracy, one shall not die for a drawing, no matter what this drawing is about. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/we-will-still-teach-difficult-subjects-french-teachers-defiant-after-of-colleague?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
14/ For those speaking French, a colleague of #SamuelPaty explains his work in that respect. https://twitter.com/brutofficiel/status/1318180380609040389?s=20
15/ Resilience: beyond laws, laïcité, freedom of belief and expression only live as daily experiences. Fr people, incl. Fr Muslims, repeatedly expressed their attachment to these principles. It will be on everyone to embody them.
16/ After the 2015 attacks, French society proved resilient. Some had predicted a civil war but on January 11th 2015, millions marched together in France.
17/ Resilience: On Sunday, Fr people gathered again in public squares. Many public figures have stressed that the goal of terror org like #ISIS or #AlQaeda is to divide multicultural societies & sow the seeds of interreligious infightings. https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/1317814853420142592
18/ Intl coop: terrorism will stay as a priority for Paris. Coop at the EU level, with the US, with country like #Iraq, who's PM visited France on Monday, will remain of the utmost importance. Homegrown violent extremism has international dimensions. https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1318261372409597955?s=20
19/
For more on this, my latest article for @WashInstitute. https://twitter.com/washinstitute/status/1319407608940404736?s=21 https://twitter.com/WashInstitute/status/1319407608940404736
