Muslim leaders condemn killing of school teacher in Paris

Muslim leaders have condemned the killing of a school teacher, Samuel Paty, in Paris.

Muslim leaders condemned the killing, which many public figures perceived as an attack on the essence of French statehood and its values of secularism, freedom of worship and freedom of expression.

While condemning the evil act on Saturday October 17, 2020, Tareq Oubrou, the imam of a Bordeaux mosque, said the killing was an act of barbarity.

“It is not a civilisation that kills an innocent person, it is barbarity,” Oubrou said.

“Every day that passes without incident we give thanks.

“We are between hammer and anvil. It attacks the republic, society, peace and the very essence of religion, which is about togetherness,” he added.

The French police have however arrested nine suspects in connection with the killing.

Paty was reportedly beheaded in broad daylight on the street in a Paris suburb on Friday, according to police sources.

The teacher, who had recently shown students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, was beheaded outside his school.

Police said the attacker was shot dead minutes after he murdered the 47-year-old history teacher.

Paty had earlier this month shown his pupils cartoons of the prophet in a civics class on the freedom of expression which angered a number of Muslim parents..

The killing was described by French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday as a “terrorist attack”.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said, “I want to share with you my total indignation. Secularism, the backbone of the French Republic, was targeted in this vile act.”

Four relatives of the attacker, including a minor, were detained in the immediate aftermath of the attack in the middle-class suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

Five more were detained overnight, among them two parents of pupils at the College du Bois d’Aulne where the teacher was employed.

Parents of pupils laid flowers at the school gate. Some said their children were distraught.

“My daughter is in pieces, terrorised by the violence of such an act. How will I explain to her the unthinkable?” one father wrote on Twitter.