Paris (AFP) – High school students returned this Monday to the home of Dominique Bernard, a teacher encouraged by a young radical Islamist in France, where authorities have vowed to protect schools as a “sanctuary” in the face of “obscurantism.”
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At 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), the terraces of France’s educational centers were filled with silent students recording Bernard as well as Professor Samuel Paty, another radical Islamist beheaded just three years ago.
“Three years later, the pain continues to be severe. Three years later, barbarity and obscurantism have reached their apogee,” lamented Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne, arguing that France “will never have to face terrorism.”
On October 16, 2020, Abdullah Anzorov, a Russian refugee of Chechen origin, was beheaded in Paty-en-Conflans-Saint-Honorine in northern Paris for displaying cool cartoons of Magoma as part of a course on freedom of expression. He was eventually defeated by the security forces.
The memory of Pati enlivened his life when Mohammed Mogouchkov – a native of Ingushetia for 20 years – entered the educational center in Arras (northern France), where he studied, and met Bernard. The police arrested him.
“In trying to protect his students, he became a victim of Islamist terrorism,” said President Emmanuel Macron, promising that the school will continue to be a “bulwark against obscurantism” and a “sanctuary.”
“I’m going back to empezar”
Amid the Arras drama, the centrist government raised its alert level to an “attempted state of emergency.” On Saturday, the Palace of Versailles was evacuated due to a bomb threat, while the Louvre was also evacuated for “security reasons.”
This month it was the turn of the educational center where Bernard taught. “I’m going back to work. It’s not over yet. We are in a state of anxiety and I am tired all the time,” said Nathalie Morcel with a branch of flowers in her hand, looking at the heart where she examines her hair.
The situation is also tense in France, home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, which is in full conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas following a surprise attack on October 7.
Before fearing the “importation” of this conflict, which has been roiling French political life for several days, and in order to deactivate criticism from the right and far right about the attack in Arras, the government is seeking to display more signatures.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that as of October 7, 102 people would be prosecuted for anti-Semitic acts or apologies for terrorism, and announced his intention to speed up the expulsion of 193 radicalized foreigners.
In the opposition of the leader of the radical wing, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the position on the conflict in the Middle East, low pressure on the “terrorist” Hamas Hamas, can break through the Iranian Nupes front.
At present, the French Communist Party cannot break the alliance, which is in a “dead point” with the formation of Mélenchon, La Francia Insumisa. The Socialists must first discuss this issue on Tuesday.
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