Summary
In October 2020, Samuel Paty, a French teacher, was murdered following a false accusation by a 13-year-old student who claimed he’d shown anti-Muslim bias. The girl had made up the story to cover the fact she had been suspended from school for bad behaviour.
In reality, Paty’s lesson on free speech included optional viewing of Charlie Hebdo cartoons, but he hadn’t excluded anyone. The student’s story triggered a social media campaign led by her father, who, along with others, is now on trial for inciting hatred and connections to Paty’s attacker, an 18-year-old radicalized Chechen.
The school will be named the Samuel Paty School from next year.
I agree with the premise of this statement, although this was about someone saying “religion of peace” to mock the Muslims who say it, I don’t believe that’s bigotry, it’s just irony. Also, who knows, maybe Catholics or some other religion commit more of these acts, but it’s difficult to know through the news alone, and religion of peace is already a Muslim stereotype, fully justified or not.
For the record though, I also follow your stance about not being nice to bigots, unjustified hate should only stay in the mind, but that possibly has the risk of radicalising someone further.