The day after the murder of a French teacher in front of a middle school in Arras, the foreign media echoed this new tragedy. In the Israeli online newspaper, Times of Israel, it is specified that the city of Arras has significant “Jewish and Muslim populations”, drawing a parallel with the conflict between Israel and Hamas which is currently being played out. Moreover, the title of the article links the events: “A French teacher stabbed to death as part of ‘Islamist terrorism’ linked to the fighting in Gaza.”
THE Financial Times adds that if “Macron did not establish a direct link”, he seemed to “allude” to the conflict taking place in the Middle East. The newspaper also emphasizes the link that France maintains with the different communities. “About half a million Jews live in France, which is also home to a large Muslim population. In the past, outbreaks of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have resulted in an increase in anti-Semitic incidents against the country’s Jewish community,” reports the British business daily.
For its part, the Spanish dailyL El País does not hesitate to say that “Islamist terrorism has targeted the heart of France”, adding that France is the “third country in the world with the largest Jewish population (after Israel and the United States) and one of the Western countries with a larger Muslim population.”
Among our neighbors across the Channel, The Guardian prefers to focus on France which, on Friday October 13, went on “emergency attack” alert. This is the highest level of the Vigipirate system, allowing the exceptional mobilization of resources. The article also traces the assailant’s journey: “Police said Mohammed M. was born in 2003 in the republic of Ingushetia, in Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus. He arrived in France in 2008 with his parents and four brothers and sisters.”
A country “haunted” by the murder of Samuel Paty
In American daily life New York Times, the attack is also mentioned in a long paper by Aurélien Breeden. He speaks of an attack “deeply disturbing the country” and judges the government of President Emmanuel Macron under “intense pressure”. To better contextualize, the article specifies that attacks on schools “are rare in France”, but that this one struck “a sensitive chord”. The article emphasizes that the country is still “haunted” by the murder of Samuel Paty, “a 47-year-old history teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class to illustrate freedom of expression and who was beheaded by an Islamist extremist because of this on October 16, 2020.”
The American media returns to the fact that the country has already been damaged by “large-scale Islamist terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016”. He recalls that these tragic events were followed by a series of “smaller shootings and knife attacks”, often perpetrated by “isolated attackers.” The journalist uses figures from the police and intelligence services, which say they have foiled “more than 40 terrorist plots since 2017.”
Moreover, the Financial Times notes that the suspect’s profile could “spark controversy as part of a national debate over immigration policy.” The journalist recalls that the Macron government has been working for months on “a bill which would facilitate the expulsion of people staying illegally in the country”, but that it failed to obtain the votes necessary to adopt the measure. The article cites “political shootings” that began with far-right politician Jordan Bardella. The latter criticized Macron’s record on immigration and security and called for the resignation of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.