French Police Raid Homes of Muslims in New Crackdown
PARIS (Dispatches) -- French police on Monday raided the homes of dozens of what they called suspected takfiri militants three days after the beheading of a teacher who had shown his pupils insulting cartoons against Islam, the interior minister said.
Gerald Darmanin said the swoop on militant networks was designed to send a message that "enemies of the Republic” would not enjoy "a minute’s respite”.
He said over 80 investigations had been launched for online hate speech following the attack, which has drawn parallels with the 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, where 12 people were gunned down for publishing insulting cartoons.
Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered on his way home from the school where he taught in a suburb northwest of Paris on Friday afternoon.
A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of his killer, an 18-year-old Chechen man Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police.
Eleven people are being held over the attack, including a known militant and the father of one of Paty’s pupils who had railed against him online and called for his dismissal.
Anzorov’s family arrived in France when he was six from the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya.
Four members of his family, which sought asylum in France, are being held for questioning.
On Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron ordered swift action to counter what he called radical Islamist propaganda online.
French authorities have also said they would pursue the authors of some 80 online messages of sympathy for Anzorov, and step up security at schools when pupils return after half-term.
Friday’s attack was the second of its kind since a trial started last month over the Charlie Hebdo killings.
The magazine republished the controversial cartoons in the run-up to the trial, and last month a young Pakistani man wounded two people with a meat cleaver outside Charlie Hebdo’s former office.
Gerald Darmanin said the swoop on militant networks was designed to send a message that "enemies of the Republic” would not enjoy "a minute’s respite”.
He said over 80 investigations had been launched for online hate speech following the attack, which has drawn parallels with the 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, where 12 people were gunned down for publishing insulting cartoons.
Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered on his way home from the school where he taught in a suburb northwest of Paris on Friday afternoon.
A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of his killer, an 18-year-old Chechen man Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police.
Eleven people are being held over the attack, including a known militant and the father of one of Paty’s pupils who had railed against him online and called for his dismissal.
Anzorov’s family arrived in France when he was six from the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya.
Four members of his family, which sought asylum in France, are being held for questioning.
On Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron ordered swift action to counter what he called radical Islamist propaganda online.
French authorities have also said they would pursue the authors of some 80 online messages of sympathy for Anzorov, and step up security at schools when pupils return after half-term.
Friday’s attack was the second of its kind since a trial started last month over the Charlie Hebdo killings.
The magazine republished the controversial cartoons in the run-up to the trial, and last month a young Pakistani man wounded two people with a meat cleaver outside Charlie Hebdo’s former office.