Icon: enlarge
"I am a teacher. I think of you, Samuel," reads a poster of this protester in Lille
Photo: PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
In many French cities, people have thought of the history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded on the street on Friday.
Prime Minister Jean Castex took part in a rally on the Place de la Republique in Paris.
Commemorative events were also held in Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux as well as numerous smaller cities.
Icon: enlargePhoto: PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
Demonstrators showed the slogan "Je suis Samuel" (I am Samuel) - based on the confession "Je suis Charlie" after the Islamist murder against the editors of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. An 18-year-old with Chechen roots had Paty on Beheaded with a knife in the street on a Friday evening in the suburbs of Paris.
He was shot dead by the police shortly afterwards.
Paty had shown his students caricatures of Mohammed in citizenship class on freedom of expression.
President Emmanuel Macron rated the attack as an Islamist act of terrorism.
Among the demonstrators were teachers who expressed their solidarity with the murdered colleague and reported about their own fears.
She "realized that one can die because of lessons," quoted "Le Monde" primary school teacher Nathalie.
The vocational school teacher Mehdi said they were on the Place der Republique "to remind them that we are a secular state and that we must get to the root of the problem".
Teachers would be "killed for doing our job".
Icon: enlarge
"I am a teacher": protester in Paris
Photo: CHARLES PLATIAU / REUTERS
Prime Minister Castex told the Journal du Dimanche that the government was working on a strategy to better protect teachers.
"I want the teachers to know that after this vicious act, the whole country will be behind them."
The tragedy affects everyone in France, because with this teacher the republic was attacked.
The police have now arrested eleven people in connection with the crime, including four close relatives of the 18-year-old.
According to the prosecutor responsible for terrorism, Jean-Francois Ricard, a half-sister of the perpetrator joined the "Islamic State" in Syria in 2014.
It is unclear where she is today.
Ricard said a confession of crime and a photo of the victim were found on the suspect's phone.
He also confirmed the authenticity of a Twitter account.
A picture of the severed head was published on this a few minutes after the crime, along with the words: "I executed one of the hellhounds that dared to humiliate Mohammed."
Icon: enlarge
"You will not behead the republic", it says on this poster in Lille
Photo: PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
Representatives of moderate Muslims in France strongly condemned the act.
A group of imams in the Lyon area announced a meeting for Sunday.
It is about the "horrific killing of our fellow citizen by a terrorist who has committed irreparable in the name of an uncertain belief".
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that he would control the financial flows of some Islamist associations more closely.
"There is a problem with the funding of a number of Islamist associations, we can and must do better here," said Le Maire to France 3 Television.
He named cryptocurrencies as an example.
Icon: The mirror
dab / Reuters / AP