There can be no question but that the murder of Samuel Paty just outside his school’s gate, because he had given a lesson on the topic of ‘freedom of expression’, was a monstrous crime.
The subsequent attack and decapitation of his body, which his murderer, Abdoullah Anzorov, then immediately posted on the Internet, accompanied by the cry “Allah is great!” was an extreme manifestation of the obscurantism that proliferates throughout our societies today. It is a phenomenon that ranges from radical Islamism to the currents of white supremacy, protected through the shelter of social networks and hate speech.
Faced with our own horror at such an unthinkable action, our natural reaction would be emotional disgust and rejection of both the perpetrator and what he or she had done. However, against such enemies of freedom, reason and knowledge are the most effective weapons.
