France to rally in solidarity after beheading of teacher
People stand in front of flowers next to a placard reading 'I am a teacher, I am Samuel' at the entrance of a middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 30kms northwest of Paris, on October 17, 2020, after a teacher was decapitated by an attacker who was later shot dead by policemen.
Photo credit: AFP
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One rally was set to take place at the Place de la Republique in Paris, a traditional site of protest where around 1.5 million people demonstrated in 2015 following a deadly attack on Charle Hebdo's office by Islamist gunmen.
History teacher, Samuel Paty, had been the target of online threats for showing the cartoons, with the father of one schoolgirl launching an online call for "mobilisation" against him.
Rallies in dozens of cities across France were expected Sunday in a show of solidarity and defiance following the decapitation of a teacher outside his school for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb Friday has sparked outrage in France and memories of a wave of Islamist violence in 2015 sparked by caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
