A moving tribute in France to the professor beheaded by a radical Islamist

French President Emmanuel Macron led a national tribute on Wednesday to Samuel Paty, the high school teacher from a Paris suburb who was beheaded by a Russian Islamist of Chechen origin after the teacher showed images of the Prophet Mohammed in an educational centre in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and after a campaign by radicals close to students and the author of the attack appeared on social networks aimed at discrediting the figure of the teacher.  

During a moving speech, Emmanuel Macron recalled the figure of Samuel Paty, who was killed last Friday in the latest terrorist attack in France, as a great example of the freedom of expression and the values upheld by the French Republic in the face of all those who promote terror. Hundreds of people gathered in the Place de la Sorbonne, the prelude to the Sorbonne University itself, where the national tribute was held. 

Emmanuel Macron did not want to focus on talking during the event about the fight against "radical political Islamism", neither about the terrorists, nor their accomplices, nor about those who spread the name of the victim on social networks. The French leader chose to speak about the figure of this geography and history teacher who was murdered for teaching his students about freedom of expression.

For Macron, Samuel Paty was "one of these teachers that we do not forget". “We have all anchored in our hearts, in our memories, the memory of a teacher who changed the course of our existence. You know, this teacher who taught us to read, to count, to trust ourselves. This teacher who has opened up a path for us. Samuel Paty was one of those," said Macron at a moving and simple ceremony in the courtyard of the Sorbonne. 

Among the many attendees there were gestures of shock at the terrible event that has once again struck French society. This is just another of the religiously motivated attacks that have shaken the French country, among which is the fatal terrorist attack on members of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015, also for showing cartoons of Mohammed.  

Three moments marked the day of tribute to the memory of Samuel Paty. Among them was the final sequence of President Macron's speech, in which he said that Because in France, professor, the Enlightenment never goes out”.

He also highlighted the episode in which the national anthem, the Marseillaise, was sung; and, on the other hand, the removal of the professor's coffin, which could be seen on a large screen located at the gates of the Sorbonne University.  

Following this sad event, many in France, including President Emmanuel Macron, have raised their voices to defend the values of equality, freedom and fraternity advocated by the French Republic as opposed to the terror that radical Islamism wishes to impose.  

The new wave of religious radicalism in the French nation has once again triggered a major debate on education and social acceptance of certain behaviours linked to fanaticism and religion, in this case Islam, and also on the law against separatism announced by President Emmanuel Macron to tackle certain sectors that are trying to break away from the values of equality and culture promoted by the French Republic in order to divide it. Precisely, the latest tribute to Samuel Paty served to confirm and reinforce the national unity against subversive Islamism and Muslim separatism. 

Several civic associations and associations in defence of freedom of expression have already called for marches in recent days to demand the protection of the values of freedom and to defend the secularism of French public education against Islamic radicalism. 

Emmanuel Macron went to the site of the attack shortly after it took place and met with the colleagues of the murdered teacher. As he left this meeting he said that the teacher "was killed because he taught, because he explained to his students freedom of expression, freedom to believe and freedom not to believe".  

The leader of the Republic had justified the tribute in advance for a clear reason: "A Frenchman, a teacher, has been murdered for teaching freedom in school".  

The tribute on the last day in Paris was intended as a moral, civic and political response, aimed at defending freedom of expression and fighting against those separatist movements linked to the Muslim world and close to Islamic and terrorist Jihadism.