Today, October 16, marks four years since French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered by an Islamist terrorist after showing images of the so-called prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression.
In early October 2020, history and geography teacher Samuel Paty held his annual lesson on freedom of expression for students at the Collège Bois-d’Aulne school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb northwest of Paris. The lesson was based on the Islamist terrorist attacks that were carried out against Charlie Hebdo’s editorial office in 2015 after the newspaper had published cartoons depicting the so-called prophet Muhammad three years earlier.
Before class, Paty warned students that he would show similar images, and students who did not want to see them were told to close their eyes or leave the classroom.
After the lesson, however, Samuel Paty was reported to the police by the parent Brahim Chnina, who believed that Paty had forced his 13-year-old daughter to see images with offensive and sexual content. Chnina also outed Paty by name and workplace in posts on social media.
One of the pictures shown during Paty’s lesson. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
On October 16, 18-year-old Abdoullakh Abouyezidovich Anzorov came to the school where Paty worked. Anzorov was a Chechen refugee who had come to France when he was six years old. Anzorov identified Paty with the help of students at the school, and when the teacher left his workplace at five o’clock in the afternoon, Anzorov followed him and murdered him on Rue du Buisson Moineau outside the school. After the murder, Samuel Paty was beheaded with the help of a 30 centimeter long knife. According to witnesses, Anzorov shouted “Allahu akbar” during the murder.
The killer filmed the murder and beheading, then posted on his Twitter account @Tchetchene_270 (French: Chechen 270) where he admitted to the killing which he believed was revenge for Paty having “insulted the Prophet” and declared his own desire to become a shahid (martyr).
The picture of Paty’s severed head was accompanied by the message: “In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful, … to Macron, leader of the infidels, I executed one of your hellhounds who dared to disparage Muhammad, calm down his fellows before you receive a severe punishment.”
Abdoullakh Anzorov was shot dead by police shortly after the murder, after Anzorov had tried to stab the officers who were trying to arrest him.
A week after Paty’s murder, seven people had been charged. Three of Anzorov’s friends were charged with complicity in terrorist crimes by helping Anzorov obtain a weapon and driving him to the crime scene. Brahim Chnina was accused of communicating via SMS with Anzorov and of organizing the hate campaign against Paty. Imam Abdelhakim Sefrioui was detained after issuing a fatwa condemning Paty and appearing in videos criticizing the teacher.
Two teenagers, 14 and 15 years old, accused of complicity in the murder by accepting 300 Euros in payment to help identify the killer Samuel Paty. Brahim Chnina’s 13-year-old daughter was accused of false confession. The girl had simply lied about what happened during Paty’s class, and she had told her father that the teacher had forced her to see the pictures she claimed showed the so-called prophet naked and with his genitals exposed.
It turned out during the trial that the girl had not even been present during the lesson in question, as the day before she had been suspended from school due to repeated absences. Brahim Chnina must have known that his daughter had been suspended from school, but he still chose to start the drive against Samuel Paty.
In February 2021, the French National Assembly approved a bill to combat Islamist extremism and separatism and to combat the roots of jihadist violence. The law, which was a direct result of the murder of Samuel Paty, makes it illegal to threaten a public official in order to receive exemptions or special treatment. The law has also expanded the authorities’ powers to close places of worship and religious organizations deemed to “promote hatred or violence”.
Samuel Paty was 47 years old.