"Allahu akbar!" in Paris - second Islamic terrorist attack in three weeks

I've been concentrating on American politics and the 2020 election, so didn't get around to posting this story until today, but thought I'd better do so in case you missed it.

With the trial of the Islamic terrorists who perpetrated the massacre at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo under way, attacks by mad Muslims have become so commonplace that it's possible to conflate them. Don't. Last week's murder of an innocent schoolteacher was the second in three weeks. Expect more.

Here's the story. On Friday, Samuel Paty, a history teacher, was killed in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris. He was beheaded. Decapitated. Had his head severed from his body.

The perpetrator, shot dead by police soon after the atttack, has been identified just today as Aboulakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old "refugee" from Chechnya, a part of the Russian Federation located in the North Caucasus. It should be noted that Chechnya is predominantly Muslim, and Islamic terrorism is a persistent problem for the Russians.

French authorities figure the unnamed teen was the one who did the deed because he posted on social media a photo of the victim and a text claiming responsibility. The investigating prosecutor said these were found on the suspect's phone. He also confirmed that a Twitter account under the name "Abdoulakh A" [not "Mohammed"? Ed.] belonged to the suspect. That's where a photo of the decapitated head was posted minutes after the attack, along with the message, "I have executed one of the dogs from hell who dared to put Muhammad down."

Aha! There's the motive! Police officials say M Paty's discussion with his class of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed had led to threats. The teenager had approached pupils in the street and asked them to point out his victim, they said. The suspect had been seen at the school asking students about the teacher, and the school's headmaster had received several threatening phone calls.

According to police, the suspect's half-sister joined the Islamic State group in Syria in 2014. They didn't give her name, and apparently don't know where she is now. However, in the classic French ploy of rounding up the usual suspects (see Casablanca), the anti-terrorism prosecutors have now arrested nine suspects, including the teen's grandfather, parents and 17-year-old brother.

French President Emmanual Macron is usually painfully politically correct about these things, so I'll give him full marks this time for denouncing, while visiting the school Friday night, what he called an "Islamist terrorist attack." He urged the nation to stand united against extremism. 

Said M Le Président, "One of our compatriots was murdered today because he taught...the freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe." 

Walt's thought for the day: Standing up for freedom of expression seems like a good idea to me. Of course no-one in North America is going to be beheaded for doing so... right? Not by Muslims, anyway. See "Conservatives staging free speech rally attacked by critics" (read: Antifa), APNews, 18/10/20.