French teacher Patti was beheaded and killed in the street last year for showing Mohammed cartoons in her classroom. (Reuters)
French teacher Samuel Paty was ambushed and beheaded outside his school last October after showing students cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, sparking mass demonstrations across France over extremist violence.
Nearly six months after the incident, a female student at the high school where Patti taught admitted through her lawyer that she had made up the lie that the teacher had asked Muslim students to leave when she showed the cartoons, but stressed that she had no intention of killing Patti. The student has been charged with defamation, while her father and another Islamic cleric have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
In a civics class last year, Patti used a cartoon published in Charlie’s magazine that mocked Mohammed as an example to get students to discuss freedom of speech and blasphemy. Her father, Brahim Chnina, later spread allegations against Patti online and filed a court case, indirectly leading to the murder of Patti by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov at the school.
The student was warned for poor conduct and kicked out of school.
The female student’s lawyer Tabula (Mbeko Tabula) admitted on Monday that the girl in the classroom where Patti showed cartoons did not attend classes, her daily conduct also continued to be poor, by the school warning can be suspended from school, and had an argument with Patti, and more information that the girl is to hide from her father to escape from school, before making up the story.
Tabla said the girl lied because she was asked by her classmates to be the “spokesman” for the class representative was not bothered, stressing that it never occurred to her to put the teacher to death, she has been very remorseful and traumatized afterwards, and changed schools to seek a new Life. Tabla also said the girl was only 13 years old, not directly or indirectly involved in the murder of Patti, and did not provide weapons or supplies, the outside world should not hold her responsible for Patti’s death. The French government has so far prosecuted 14 people in the Patti case.
Graffiti at university targets professor for Islamist comments
The French Education sector continues to be plagued by recent controversies related to Islam, including two professors at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) who were accused of making discriminatory remarks against Islam and were protested by students who posted large posters with graffiti saying that “Islamophobia kills”. The National Union of Students of France (UNEF) also called the two professors involved “fascists”.
Marlene Schiappa, Undersecretary of the French Interior Ministry, condemned the students’ behavior, saying that the large posters and online attacks against the professors reminded her of the Patti incident and that she was concerned that the lives of the two professors might be threatened and asked the students to follow the established procedures for filing complaints.
The Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris said it had called the police, and Congress is considering new legislation to make it a crime to disseminate false statements against public servants on the Internet.
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