Uproar in France after school director resigns due to threats from Muslim extremists – Joop

There has been a stir in France after a Parisian school director resigned because he was threatened. In February this year, the director asked three Muslim students to take off their headscarves. One of them refused, after which an argument broke out. Shortly afterwards, the school director received death threats online. In a message to school employees, the director wrote that he was forced to resign “for his own safety and that of the school.”

It is not without reason that the director does not take the threats with a grain of salt. In 2020, French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson on freedom of expression. He also received death threats online before his murder, carried out by a former student. Also last year, a teacher was stabbed to death by a Muslim extremist in Arras, northern France, and another teacher and a security guard were injured in that attack.

French politicians from across the political spectrum are expressing their disgust at the threats against the school director. For example, the socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo has assured the man “of full support and solidarity” and says she is “shocked and appalled”. Prime Minister Attal has invited the director for a meeting.

Since 2004, religious expressions in education have been banned in France. This includes the headscarf as well as, for example, a turban on a yarmulke. The student who started the threats against the director is an adult and was following vocational training at the school. Immediately after the incident, she filed a complaint against the director, claiming that he had assaulted her. That charge was dismissed. A 26-year-old man has now been arrested in connection with the death threats and will appear in court in April.

The highest terrorist threat level has been in effect in France since last Sunday. This was instituted after the terrorist attack on the theater in Moscow in which more than a hundred people were killed. That attack was claimed by IS. France has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in recent years. In view of the Olympic Games that will take place in Paris later this year, there is great fear of a new attack.