French Authorities Arrest 11 After History Teacher Beheading

Topline

 French authorities have arrested 11 people in connection to the gruesome beheading of a teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in his class, which has sparked sweeping freedom of speech protests across the country reminiscent of recent terrorist attacks in France.

Key Facts

Crucial Quote 

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, speaking from the crime scene on Friday, quickly labeled the incident an “Islamist terrorist attack” against “the republic and its values.” “One of our citizens was murdered today because he was teaching, because he was teaching students about freedom of expression” said Macron. “This battle is ours and it is an existential one.” 

Key Background 

The parallels with Charlie Hebdo are particularly striking given the timing of the attack, which comes amid the ongoing trial of suspected perpetrators in the 2015 killing of 12 in Charlie Hebdo’s office following the controversial printing of Muhammad cartoons. During the attack, the two Islamist gunmen shouted “Allahu akbar” and “the Prophet is avenged.” A day before the trial began last month, Charlie Hebdo reprinted the cartoons that triggered the initial attack, writing in an accompanying editorial that not doing so would be “political or journalistic cowardice.” In retaliation, a man with a knife stabbed two people near the publication’s former offices in what police are investigating as another Islamic extremist attack.

Tangent 

President Trump offered “sincere condolences” to France on behalf of the United States during a Saturday night rally in Wisconsin. “I’d like to extend my really sincere condolences to a friend of mine, President Macron of France, where they just yesterday had a vicious, vicious Islamic terrorist attack—beheading an innocent teacher near Paris,” Trump said, adding: “France is having a hard time and Macron’s a great guy.”