Why is britain silent on the murder of samuel paty? | thearticle

Why is Britain so silent on the beheading of a teacher in France at the hands of a foul, murdering hater of freedom of expression? There was no mention at Prime Ministers’ questions, no

condemnation by Dominic Raab or for that matter from Sir Keir Starmer or the shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy. The  biggest teachers’ union, the NEU, has published no press release, and

neither have the National Union of Journalists or Index on Censorship, the UK’s self-proclaimed NGO, whose task is to defend freedom of expression. The victim, Samuel Paty, 47, decided to

teach his teenage pupils a class on freedom of expression. It is important to remember that the French school-teacher has a near mythic status in France. They are seen as the transmitters of

the civic virtues of Republican France. The 1789 “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” was approved by the National Assembly of France, on August 26, 1789. This foundational

document makes plain what is at stake. Article XI states plainly that, “The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may,

accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.” The men who organised Samuel Paty’s murder did so

because, in his lesson on free speech, he had taken as his example the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that in 2005 had caused controversy first in Denmark and then world-wide. He wanted to

show that every religion in the world has to tolerate being criticised and mocked, and that to murder the journalists of _Charlie Hebdo_, the French _Private Eye_, for satirising aspects of

Islam and its ideological offshoot Islamism, was unacceptable. Being sensitive he invited any Muslim pupil who might be offended to take a break from the class. Some of them went home to

tell their parents — and an infernal torrent of social media attacks on Paty was launched. He complained to the police about the threats. But the Islamist hate machine against Western values

is stronger in France than anywhere else in Europe. France is in a mixture of shock, mourning, and anger. Paty’s funeral involved a national ceremony of mourning in the courtyard of the

Sorbonne, a centre of scholarship through the ages that has stood against superstition and hatred, and against the creeping authoritarianism of religious extremists. He was decorated with

the highest rank of the _L__égion d’__Honneur_ with a powerful oration by President Macron (a man who, lest we forget, married his own school teacher). Macron’s predecessor, François

Hollande, stood beside Macron, as France stood in solidarity with the murdered teacher. (It was only the odious Marine Le Pen who tried to use the killing for her own political advantage.)

When the Saudi-financed Islamists organised the 9/11 terror attack in New York, _Le Monde_, carried a powerful front page editorial — “_Nous sommes tous Americains_” (We are all Americans).

Millions of French people, who regard school as the place where freedom of expression is first inculcated into future citizens, now sport home-made badges proclaiming, “_Je suis Prof_” (I am

a teacher). The absence of any expression of solidarity in Britain is sad, a reflection perhaps of how inward-looking our society has become, under the twin pressures of Covid and Brexit.

We are uncomfortable about confronting the freedom-denying aspects of organised faith — Christian churches not so long ago, Islam today. Paty was not Jewish. He was killed because he was a

teacher. American social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter claim they extend freedom of expression, but are more often used as transmitters of hate. It is profit they want, not the

transmission of civic rules essential to a free society. As a personal gesture by someone who loves France and as a former president of the National Union of Journalists, I will be outside

the French embassy in Knightsbridge on Monday at 11 am to wear my home-made “_Je suis Prof_” badge. I hope others will join not to make or hear speeches, not to shout at or about anyone, but

 just to extend a British hand of solidarity to France and to teachers everywhere after the extreme evil that we have witnessed, but which in Britain has been passed over in silence.