Crif, the umbrella representative group of French Jewish institutions, strongly condemns the barbaric Islamist attack in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a Paris suburb, where a schoolteacher was decapitated after facing criticism for showing caricatures of Prophet Muhammad to students.
The Jewish group called for joining a rally Sunday afternoon at the Place de la République in central Paris to pay tribute to the teacher, Samuel Paty, and defend the freedom of expression.
Paty was decapitated outside the school where he worked by an 18-year-old refugee from Chechnya who appeared to have been motivated by videos on social media.
‘’The obvious complicity of the preachers of radical Islam must be denounced. Those who incite hatred have held the assassin’s hand and are complicit in this ignominy. They must answer for their actions,’’ Crif said.
Crif condemned ‘’the escalation of these acts of hatred which attack France’s most precious values and joins forces with all French people to defend the Republic alongside our teachers.’’