Alexandre RODDE, a lieutenant in the gendarmerie operational reserve and a researcher specializing in terrorism and mass killings issues

"On October 16, 2020, an eighteen-year-old jihadist beheaded Samuel Paty, a teacher of History and Geography , not far from his middle school Le Bois d'Aulne in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). The attack was motivated by a desire for retaliation, after the teacher used cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as a teaching tool during a course on freedom of expression. The violence of this attack and the choice of its target had a considerable impact in France but also abroad. Indeed, hitting a teacher and, by extension, the school institution with the republican symbol it represents, ensures important and immediate media coverage.(...)"

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