A ceremony in tribute to Dominique Bernard was held on Sunday October 13 in Arras, in the north of France, one year after his assassination. The literature professor was stabbed by a radicalized former student who is now detained.
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The ceremony in tribute to Dominique Bernard gave pride of place to the arts: music, dance, painting. It took place on the Place des Héros in Arras (Pas-de-Calais), in the presence of several ministers. None spoke, at the request of the teacher’s widow, who spoke for the first time this weekend in the press. The city siren, says AFP, sounded at 11 a.m., the time at which this 57-year-old literature professor was killed with several stab wounds by Mohammed MogushkovRussian from Ingushetia, then aged 20 and on file for Islamist radicalization.
“ I don’t want any more speeches. What’s the point? Everything has been said “. Isabelle Bernard explains herself in daily life The World and the local newspaper The Voice of the North. It is out of the question for her that her husband’s death will be used politically. She had remained discreet since October 13, 2023. Today, this English teacher decided to speak out, in particular to discuss the values she shared with Dominique Bernard. Values of tolerance, freedom of thought, emancipation through culture.
He embodied the Republic
Her husband was assassinated, according to her, because he embodied the Republic. She says that when Mohammed, this young radicalized Russian, was her husband’s student, the latter admitted not feeling free to say whatever he wanted. He had to be careful. After the assassination of Samuel Paty, another teacher, three years earlier in the Paris region, the couple became aware of the vulnerability of teachers. Isabelle Bernard had also questioned her husband, “ who will be next? Because there will be one “.
“ I attest that there is no human being except the one who tirelessly fights hatred within and around him », read, this Sunday in Arras, a friend of Dominique Bernard, taking up a text by the Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi. This Monday, October 14, a minute of silence will be observed in all middle and high schools in France, in tribute to the two teachers murdered, three years apart.
Also readArras attack: one year later, the psychology of Dominique Bernard’s assassin in question