Macron was accused by leftist critics at the time of stigmatising Europe's biggest Muslim community and pandering to the far-right ahead of 2022 elections.īut on the right, voters and politicians have long been urging tougher action to restore the state's authority in what a group of teachers described in a 2015 book as the "lost territories of the Republic".
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The attack came in the midst of a heated debate over Macron's campaign against what he called "Islamist separatism" in immigrant communities, where conservative Muslims are accused of rejecting secularism, free speech and other values taught in school. The campaign caught the attention of Normandy-based extremist Anzorov, who traced Paty to his school and paid some of his students to point him out as he was walking home from work.Īnzarov was himself shot dead later that day by police. Paty's decision to show students aged 14-15 two cartoons of Mohammed, one featuring the prophet naked on all fours, unleashed a vicious online smear campaign started by the father of a student who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslims to leave the classroom. She said she feared that her remarks could be "misinterpreted by the students and widely shared (outside the school), as happened with Samuel". "I weigh every word I say now," the woman, who was also not named for security reasons, told the paper. In an interview with Liberation newspaper, one of Paty's colleagues said she too had grown more guarded. In scenes reminiscent of the rallies held after the 2015 killing of a group of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists - whose drawings Paty showed his class - thousands of people marched across France in defence of free speech after the teacher was killed.Īt least three towns went on to name schools after Paty, including the multi-ethnic eastern Paris suburb of Valenton.ĭespite the show of defiance, some teachers say Paty's murder has caused them to exercise a form of self-censorship.Ī teacher in a town near Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, who did not want to be named, told AFP she "holds back more" now when discussing religion with her class. Students are expected to embark on the path to "modernity, progress, civilisation and knowledge" in the classroom, he added. For sociologist Michel Wieviorka, it was an attack on the idea, long cherished by the French, "that children leave their differences at the door when they enter school".