© AFPPresident Emmanuel Macron called the attack an "assassination"
A teacher beheaded on a street near Paris on Friday afternoon has been named as Samuel Paty by French Education MinisterJean-Michel Blanquer.
The suspected killer, who was armed with a knife and a plastic pellet gun,
was later shot dead by officers in a nearby town, police said.
French authorities have launched an anti-terror investigation.
President Emmanuel Macron called it an "assassination" and an "Islamist terrorist attack".
Here's what we know about the attack so far:
Who was the victim?Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher,
was decapitated near the school in the commune of Conflans Saint-Honorine, northwest of the French capital, at around 5 pm local time.
Police told the AFP news agency that he had hosted a class discussion with secondary school students about cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Some Muslim parents said they had complained to the school and French media reported
Paty had received a number of threats in the wake of the class.Blanquer said the school had taken "appropriate" steps in response to the complaints in setting up measures that both "supported the teacher and opened up a dialogue with parents".
The minister added he would prepare a pedagogical "framework" on how to address the attack with students when they returned to school after half term. He said a minute's silence would be organised.
President Emmanuel Macron visited the Bois d'Aulne school and met the history teacher's colleagues on Friday evening.
He said afterwards: "One of our citizens was assassinated tonight because he was a teacher, because he taught students about the liberty of expression, the liberty to believe or not to believe.
"Our countryman was the victim of a cowardly attack. The victim of an Islamist terrorist attack."
Who was the alleged perpetrator?His alleged attacker was reported to be 18 years old, of Chechen origin and born in Moscow.
Officials said he was shot dead in the neighbouring town of Éragny after he acted in a threatening manner and failed to respond to an order to put down his weapons.
A picture of the decapitated teacher was posted on social media immediately after the attack on an account that belonged to the assailant shot by police, France's national anti-terror prosecutor said on Saturday.
© Euronews/Google EarthThe incident occurred in a suburb northwest of Paris
What's the background to this attack?The incident came as the French government works on a bill to address Islamist radicals who authorities claim are creating a "parallel society outside the values of the French Republic".This marks the second terrorism-related incident since a trial began into the January 2015 massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons depicting Muhammad.
The magazine republished them this year as the trial got underway.
Three weeks ago, an 18-year-old from Pakistan was arrested after stabbing two people outside the former Charlie Hebdo offices.He told police he was upset about the publication of the caricatures. His victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
How have people reacted to the incident?Charlie Hebdo tweeted on Friday: "Intolerance just reached a new threshold and seems to stop at nothing to impose terror in our country."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday
expressed her condolences to the victim's family and said her "thoughts were going out to teachers in France and throughout Europe" after the attack.
"Without them (teachers), there are no citizens. Without them, there is no democracy," she added.
The Assembly of Chechens in Europe, which is based in Strasbourg, France, said in a statement: "Like all French people our community is horrified by this incident."
Comment: Police also
apprehended those believed to be connected to the killer:
French police have detained four people, including a minor, in connection with the brutal slaying of a schoolteacher in Conflans-Saint-Honorine near Paris, which was described by President Emmanuel Macron as Islamist terrorism.
Five more people were taken into custody after the raid, according to unconfirmed French media reports. Among them is the suspect's father and several people who were involved in a row with the victim, a school teacher, which allegedly triggered the crime.
Charlie Hebdo magazine is
organizing a rally in response to the gruesome murder:
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted by Islamists for publishing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, has called for a public rally in the wake of what is seen as a copycat killing of a schoolteacher.
The publication, known for its no-holds-barred approach to satirical cartoons, has called on the French people to show up on Sunday in the iconic Paris Place de la Republique square. The protest is being organized in league with the French teachers' union and freedom groups, Charlie Hebdo said.
UPDATE (10/19): Abdoulakh Anzorov
reportedly tweeted an image of Mr. Paty's head after the murder. Some of Paty's students may have seen the image, which included this message: "From Abdullah, the servant of Allah, to Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your hell dogs who dared to belittle Muhammad." Paty had been
doxxed online after he showed the image of a naked Mohammed cartoon. Any angry father whose daughter was in the class called on Muslims to take action against the teacher. After that, Paty's personal information showed up online.
Russian authorities say they have no powers to open up their own
investigation into Anzorov, but will keep in touch with French officials. They added that he had been radicalized in France (he lived there since he was six), so there's not much they can do.
Meanwhile France intends to strengthen their
control over Islamist group funding. And French police have made a number of
arrests in operations against Islamist radicals:
The authorities have launched more than 80 probes into the spread of hate online, [the interior minister] said.
Never has the government mobilized so many resources to fight Islamism on social media.
Darmanin said that around 50 Muslim groups will be inspected by the authorities this week. "Several of them, as per my proposal according to the president's request, will be dissolved by the Council of Ministers."
One of the groups in the crosshairs is the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), a human rights NGO chronicling attacks on Muslims, according to its website. Darmanin linked the group to the parent who had "launched a 'fatwa' against the teacher."
A certain number of elements allow us to believe that [this group] is an enemy of the Republic.
The minister said he will also ask for another Muslim NGO, BarakaCity, to be dissolved. Its founder, Idriss Sihamedi, was detained last week following an online harassment complaint by a media columnist.
...
Journalist Zineb El Rhazoui accused the CCIF of participating in a "harassment campaign" against the slain teacher, and similar allegations were made by lawmaker Aurore Berge. The CCIF rejected these allegations as "false," denying any ties to the case.
BarakaCity head Sihamedi, meanwhile, said that the dissolution of the group cannot happen "in the snap of a finger," and would be "illegal," because Darmanin is "not a king in an absolute monarchy."
UPDATE (10/20): The French mosque responsible for sharing a video online thought to have provoked the murder (though it didn't include Paty's name or any calls for violence) expressed
regret for doing so. But the French interior ministry has now demanded the mosque be
closed down for six months.
The father who initially called for action to be taken against the teacher online allegedly issued a fatwa against the teacher, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Before the murder, he was
in contact with Anzorov, the young Chechen who ended up beheading Paty:
The news contradicted earlier reports claiming the killer had no contact with, or knowledge of, Paty or the school where he taught - despite allegedly having asked specifically for the 47-year-old history and geography teacher's whereabouts upon arriving at the school on Friday. ...
The father and several of his relatives have since been arrested in a crackdown on "Islamic terrorism" following Paty's killing, as the French government acknowledged it had not done enough to police extremist organizations. Five students have also reportedly been arrested for allegedly helping Anzorov identify Paty in exchange for money.
France's
L'Express magazine
reprinted Mohammed cartoons, some of which were reportedly those shown by Paty in class.
Of course they don't exist when someone is critical of Jews/Zionism/Israel, or LGBTQRSTUVWXYZers, or other "privileged classes". That kind of "free speech" will land you in jail and/or with a serious fine.