A spray of white paint in the night. The plaque for Square Samuel-Paty located in Paris, opposite the Sorbonne in the 5th arrondissement, was found degraded Monday morning with the word “islamist“Crossed out in the mention”victim of islamist terrorism“.
It was Nicolas Gavrilenko, treasurer of the Union of Secular Families (Ufal), who reported the plaque “Vandalized”, denouncing in passing “The willful blindness of some”.
“The reference to the ‘Islamist’ character of the terrorist act committed against Samuel Paty” has been “Bomb blasted”, reacts for its part this Tuesday the mayor (DVD) of the 5th arrondissement, Florence Berthout, evoking a “unacceptable degradation“. “Wanting to suppress the Islamist character of this heinous act is unbearable», She adds, while letting it be known that she has filed a complaint. She also announces that the city services have restored the plaque on Tuesday.
A considerable emotion
In this square opposite the Sorbonne University, the stele in homage to Samuel Paty stands alongside the statue of the philosopher Montaigne, the work of the sculptor Paul Landowski, offered in 1934 to the city of Paris. On the base of the statue is written: “Paris has had my heart since my childhood. I am only French in this great city. Above all, large and incomparable in variety. The glory of France is one of the noblest ornaments in the world. ”
The square was inaugurated on October 16, one year to the day after the attack which claimed the life of the professor. The ceremony took place in the presence of his family, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (PS) and the ministers of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer and Higher Education Frédérique Vidal.
During this day of homage, a ceremony organized at the Ministry of National Education, in the presence of the teacher’s family, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, opened this series of commemorations. Jean Castex then celebrated a “Servant of the Republic”, “Struck to death under the most abject conditions in the name of the most barbaric obscurantism, quite simply because he was fulfilling his mission in one of these colleges in France”. He added: “To pay homage to Samuel Paty is to pay homage to the Republic.”
The beheading of Samuel Paty, 47, on October 16, 2020 near his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young radicalized who accused him of having shown caricatures of Muhammad to his students, had aroused considerable emotion across the country.