Girl who lied about her teacher in France, leading to his beheading, was lying about what happened.

 

Samuel Paty. CBS/AFP via Twitter. 

A girl who lied about her teacher in France, which lead to his beheading by a radical Muslim, was lying about what happened. CBS/AFP. Paty showed cartoons that depicted Mohammad, which is forbidden in Islam, during a class. However, the unidentified 13 year old girl lied about attending the class and falsely claimed that Paty ordered Muslim students to leave the room. The girls father was informed by her and he whipped up a frenzy on social media, leading to Paty's death. Both the father and a cleric were charged in the case. Paty was murdered by an 18 year old Chechen who was then shot and killed by police. 

My Comment:

Interesting development in this case from France. What happened to Paty was horrible enough but it seems like the girl that caused the frenzy was lying about what happened. She wasn't there and no Muslims were kicked out of the class. It was a lie but it was a lie that spread all over France and had the predictable outcome of getting someone brutally murdered.

The case shocked France and for good reason. The French people believe in freedom of speech and hate that Islamic terrorists are trying to prevent them from talking about radical Islam. They also recognize how important those cartoons are. Without it you cannot understand the Charlie Hebdo attacks, one of the most significant terror attacks in French History and an attack that marked a wave of absolutely devastating and horrible attacks, including the Paris and Nice attacks that left dozens dead. 

I think this counts as an example of cancel culture spreading via social media. Much like the Twitter crusaders that try to get people to lose their jobs, the people in this case wanted to destroy someone's life because they did something they didn't like even though what he did was both legal and decent. In this case someone got killed but I honestly don't understand why it doesn't happen more often. 

As for the 13 year old, I think she should be charged in her role in this case. Had she not lied to her father about what happened he might not have spread the hatred that lead to Paty's death. And if her father and the cleric can be charged for their role I think she should be as well. It's also clear that she didn't get the purpose of the lesson which is that free speech is more important than her outrage. 

The beheading was probably one of the most notable terror attacks of last year. Thankfully Islamic terrorism is slowing down dramatically. As ISIS and al-Qaeda have largely been destroyed there aren't any major terror networks promoting terrorism. That leaves lone wolf attacks like this one and even those are becoming more rare...