French Teacher’s Decapitation: The Battle between Religion and Secularism

A French teacher was murdered on October 16 after showing students cartoons from Charlie Hebdo. (Wikimedia Commons)

Abdoullakh Abouyezidvitch A., an 18-year-old Russian national, beheaded French middle-school teacher Samuel Paty in a Parisian suburb on October 16. Abouyezidvitch, later killed by police, committed the crime after Paty allegedly showed his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Paty had displayed cartoons from Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine that Islamist terrorists targeted in 2015. The three days of violence, beginning with a massacre at the newspaper’s offices, led to demonstrations of solidarity around the world. Charlie Hebdo became an international symbol of the right to free speech. Since these events, these issues have become increasingly polarizing in France.

All of this culminated with the murderer of Paty outside his school on Friday. The teacher had been teaching his eighth-grade class about the notion of free speech and organized a debate regarding Charlie Hebdo’s publications of Muhammad. According to authorities, Paty warned his student prior to displaying the cartoons.

Paty’s conduct, however, angered a parent, who called for the instructor's dismissal. The parent shared harshly critical videos regarding the teacher’s actions on social media. 

Abouyezidvitch, a legal refugee living in Normandy, viewed this video and subsequently drove the 40 miles to Paty’s school. Once there, he asked students to point out Paty, who he then killed and left in the street. In a message on Twitter, he claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities found Paty’s body decapitated with knife wounds to the head and torso. After Abouyezidvitch refused to lay down his weapons, police had no alternative but to employ lethal force. 

French President Emmanuel Macron grieved the loss of Paty: “One of our fellow citizens was assassinated today because he was teaching. Because he was teaching students the freedom of expression, the freedom to believe and to not believe … Our countryman was the victim of a cowardly attack. The victim of an Islamist terrorist attack.”

Other groups echoed the president’s sentiments. The Assembly of Chechens in Europe said in a statement: “Like all French people, our community is horrified by this incident."

Kamel Kabtane, the rector of the Lyon mosque, also remarked that “[Paty] was respectful and he even suggested to students who might feel shocked to go out. He wanted to speak without offending, without hurting”

In the aftermath of the incident, police have detained various suspects with a connection to the attack. 

On social media, the hashtag #JeSuisSamuel (I am Samuel) has also started trending, a clear allusion to the #JeSuisCharlie movement that ensued in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

This occurrence has provoked the French government to tighten control over alternative education methods, having now introduced a bill that aims to tighten home-schooling so as to counter radical Koranic ideology, closely monitor prayer halls, and forbid foreign imams from training clerics in France.

Macron held a national tribute for Paty on October 21, posthumously awarding him the Legion of Honor; France’s highest civilian decoration.

Tensions within the French Muslim community have grown in recent years and, in many ways conflicts with France’s adherence to strict secularism. More than five million Muslims call France home, the overwhelming majority of whom do not practice extremist beliefs. Nevertheless, the French tradition of secularism affects many of strong faith by urging the national identity to come first.

In discussing the path forward, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer tweeted: “Unity and resolve are the only way to respond to the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism.”