Emmanuel Macron stands up for French values in defiance of Islamists, hails slain teacher as 'face of the Republic'President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to a French history teacher beheaded by an Islamist radical as a 'quiet hero.' President Emmanuel Macron promised Wednesday that France will not renounce freedoms taught by a schoolteacher beheaded by a radical Islamist last week after showing caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class. At a national memorial at the Sorbonne University in central Paris, Macron praised history teacher Samuel Paty as the “face of the Republic” who “believed in knowledge.”Paty, 47, was murdered on Friday by an 18-year-old of Chechen origin who had become radicalized. “Samuel Paty ... became the face of the Republic, of our will to shatter terrorists, to (do away with) Islamists, to live like a community of free citizens in our country,” Macron said. The stirring ceremony, with readings that included a poem by Albert Camus to his own teacher.-AP

Source: The Standard October 22, 2020 06:56 UTC