Showing Cartoons Of The Prophet Muhammad, Teacher Was Stabbed To Death In France

Illustration - Photo on January 12, 2015 when French soldiers patrol near the Eiffel Tower. The patrol is part of the highest-level "Vigiprate" security measure after the Charlie Hebdo office shooting tragedy (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - A high school history teacher in France was stabbed to death near a school who earlier this month showed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. The teacher's actions were considered blasphemous to Muslims, said French officials.

The attacker was shot dead by police not far from the scene of the attack on Friday afternoon in a residential area on the northwest outskirts of Paris, Antara reported on Saturday.

"One of our citizens was killed today because he taught, he taught his students about freedom of expression," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at the scene of the attack.

"Our colleagues were attacked in a flashy manner, fell victim to Islamic terrorist attacks," said Macron. "They won't win ... We will act. Decisively, and quickly. You can count on my determination."

The incident echoes the attack five years ago on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad caused problems in French society.

Friday's murder, targeting a teacher, was interpreted by many public figures as an attack on the essence of French statehood, with its values of secularism, freedom of worship and freedom of expression.

"Tonight, France is under attack," Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said in a tweet on Twitter.

The victim of Friday's attack suffered multiple knife wounds to the neck, according to a police representative. One law enforcement source said that the teacher was beheaded in the attack.

French broadcaster BFMTV reports that the suspected attacker is 18 years old and born in Moscow. Law enforcement officials did not name the assailants, or victims.

A police source said that the witness heard the attacker shout "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great."

The attack took place on the street in front of the middle school where the victim worked, on the outskirts of the city of Conflans Sainte-Honorine. The area is a middle-class neighborhood with many residents commuting to work in Paris.

Citizenship lessons

According to French media reports, the teacher who was killed earlier this month showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to students as part of civics lessons.

A series of messages on Twitter sent on October 9 contained a video of a man saying his daughter, a Muslim, was one of the students in the class. He was shocked and annoyed by the teacher's actions.

The man in the video urged Twitter users to complain to the authorities. Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

France over the past few years has experienced a series of violent attacks by Islamist militants, including the 2015 Charlie Hebdo assassination, and the November 2015 bombings and shootings at the Bataclan theater and several locations around Paris that killed 130 people.

Less than a month ago, a Pakistani man used a butcher knife to attack and injure two people smoking outside the office where Charlie Hebdo was based at the time of the 2015 attack.

The cartoon issue was revived last month when Charlie Hebdo decided to republish it to coincide with the start of a trial regarding the 2015 attacks.

Al-Qaeda, an Islamic militant group that has claimed responsibility for the killings, threatened to attack Charlie Hebdo again after republishing the cartoon.

The magazine said last month that the cartoon was republished to assert its right to freedom of expression, and to show that it would not be silenced by violent attacks. This stand was supported by many of France's leading politicians and public figures.

In response to Friday's attacks outside of schools, Charlie Hebdo wrote on his Twitter account: "Intolerance has crossed a new threshold and does not appear to provide any basis for imposing its terror on our country."