Killer who beheaded History teacher had ties to jihadists in Syria

He is believed to have been a Chechen fighter in Idlib. So far the police have arrested seven people, including two students, the father of a student and a radical imam, three friends of the killer. Today, a message from the French Council for the Muslim faith will be read in the mosques.

Paris (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Abdullakh Anzorov, the young 18-year-old Chechen who beheaded prof. Samuel Paty for showing a satirical cartoon about Muhammad in a class was in contact with a Russian-speaking jihadist in Syria.

The identity of the jihadist is not known. The newspaper Le Parisien claims that he was located through the IP address linked to Idlib, the city in northwestern Syria in the hands of Assad's opponents and which has become a refuge for many jihadist groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirms that thousands of foreigners from France, Great Britain and Chechnya are in Syria to fight the holy war against Bashar Assad, and that a group of Chechens reside in Idlib.

Immediately after the assassination, Anzorov had launched an audio message in Russian on social media in which he said he had "avenged the prophet" whom the teacher had shown "in an insulting way".

The message also featured a video, along with two tweets: one showed Samuel Paty's severed head; in the other Anzorov claimed responsibility for the murder.

Police have so far charged seven people with complicity in the killing of Paty. First of all, there are two students who helped Anzorov by identifying the victim; then there is the father of a student of Paty, Brahim Chnina, who launched a social media campaign against him; a radical imam, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who fomented hatred against the professor; three friends of the murderer who helped him buy a weapon and accompanied him by car to the place of the killing.

Two days ago, a national tribute to Paty was held in the courtyard of the Sorbonne, attended by President Emmanuel Macron. Today in French mosques a message released by the French Council for the Muslim faith is to be included in today's sermons.

It states that Muslims in France "are not persecuted", even though "we are sometimes the object of Islamophobic acts". Faced with these provocations, the organization invites the Islamic faithful to "remain dignified, calm and lucid".

The Islamic world in France is divided between Muslims who want to integrate into French culture and others who, in the name of a radical Islam, want to destroy republican coexistence and values.

• islam
• france
• religious freedom
• freedom of expression
• fundamentalism
• salafi
• cartoons mohammed
• charlie hebdo
• terrorism
• reform of islam
• hadith