Terrorist networks: How a teacher in France was the goal

Terrorist networks: How a teacher in France was the goal

New insights around the cruel murder of the French teacher Samuel Paty throw a dark light on the Islamist threat. According to the French newspaper le parisien there was a contact between the murderer Abdullah Anzorov Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Faruq Shami. Shami, a Tajik citizen, allegedly acted as a jihadist journalist and communicated online with radicals in Syria. Shortly after the beheading of Patys, Anzorov is said to have sent him a voice message in which he justified the murder and divided a picture of his victim to which Shami with an "Allahu Akbar!" reacted.

the murder and its background

The murder of Samuel Paty took place on October 16, 2020 in Éragny, a suburb of Paris. The 18-year-old Anzorov, a Chechen refugee, stabbed and beheaded Paty, who previously in a lesson about freedom of expression and the controversial Mohammed caricatures of Charlie Hebdo spoke. This lesson, for which a student made false accusations against Paty, stated a wave of hatred and threats to the teacher.

The French judiciary has now charged ten people for helping to murder, including parents of students and an imam. The approach of Anzorov was convicted by French President Emmanuel Macron as a "typical Islamist terrorist attack", whereby he also addressed the 2015 attacks in connection with Charlie Hebdo . In the aftermath of the murder, there were great demonstrations and debates about the role of Islam in society and the security of teachers in France.

The connections from Anzorov to HTS and other jihadists raise serious questions about radicalization in Europe. The revelations show the need for a determined procedure against the extremist influence and the networking of Islamists on the Internet that can influence entire generations of young Muslims.