A Muslim Schoolgirl’s Lies Result In Her Teacher Being Beheaded By A Jihadist

In 2020, Samuel Paty was a 47 year old history and geography teacher at a secondary school in the commune of Éragny, Val-d’Oise, France—less than 20 miles from Paris. He lived just ten minutes from the school with his wife and their five-year-old son.

Although Samuel had been a highly respected teacher at Collège Bois-d'Aulne for five years, by mid-October 2020, he found himself at the centre of a harassment campaign from members of the local Muslim community.

The controversy arose after a 13 year old pupil alleged that Samuel had shown a cartoon from 2012 published by Charlie Hebdo—a French satirical magazine known for its commentary on politics, religion, and culture. The magazine’s provocative illustrations have frequently been labeled offensive by groups who oppose its content.

In fact, in January 2015, two Algerian men carried out a targeted attack on the magazine’s Paris headquarters, killing 12 employees and injuring several others. The attackers later claimed their actions were “revenge” for a cartoon depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a nude caricature.

Samuel’s student also alleged that he had told Muslim pupils to leave the room if they were offended. She later told her parents about the incident, and their outrage quickly spread throughout the community. Images of Samuel were shared online as a relentless hate campaign began targeting him.

Brahim Chnina, the student’s father, filed a police complaint. In response, Samuel filed one of his own on the grounds of defamation. Undeterred, Brahim continued reaching out to other Muslims via YouTube and Facebook, stirring anger toward Samuel. He publicly shared the teacher’s name and even the address of the school where Samuel worked, urging other parents to join him in taking action and staging protests against the teacher.

In hindsight, Samuel Paty had been completely innocent.

He had never shown any such cartoon to his class, and the student had been absent on the day in question. She had fabricated the story to avoid telling her parents that she had been suspended for two days due to truancy and poor behavior.

Unfortunately, the lie had already spiralled out of control, placing Samuel Paty squarely in the crosshairs of vigilantes who sought revenge for what they perceived as “mocking their Prophet.”

October 16th 2020, was the final day of school before the half-term holidays. Samuel was looking forward to spending some much-needed time with his wife and young son, never imagining that he would not see them again.

That day, Abdoullakh Abouyezidovich Anzorov—an 18 year old Chechen immigrant to France and member of a local Muslim minority—had learned about Samuel online. Despite living over 60 miles away in the town of La Madeleine, he traveled to the school where Samuel taught.

In 2014, Anzorov’s sister had travelled to Syria to join the terrorist group ISIS. Despite this connection, in March 2020, his family was granted refugee status and given a ten-year residency in France.

Anzorov later declared that he was ready to become a “martyr” and vowed to “avenge the Prophet.” He intended to kill Samuel Paty, whom he believed had insulted and disrespected Islam.

While waiting outside the school gates, Anzorov approached two students and paid them around €300 to identify Samuel, telling them he wanted to “hit” the teacher and shame him for allegedly disrespecting Islam. The students pointed Samuel out, and as he walked home that day, Anzorov followed closely behind.

As Samuel reached a road named Rue du Buisson Moineau, Anzorov pulled out a 30cm knife he had brought along with him. He then ran up behind the unsuspecting teacher and began to decapitate him.

During the struggle, Samuel also sustained stab wounds to his head, abdomen and arms. Meanwhile, horrified onlookers heard the killer screaming "Allahu Akbar".

Minutes after the beheading, Anzorov took to Twitter to post a graphic image of Samuel's severed head accompanied by the caption:

Police arrived within minutes but unfortunately, it was too late for Samuel. Anzorov, who was still at the scene was confronted by officers but he took out an air rifle and fired shots at them before also trying to stab them.

As a result, he was shot 9 times by police, ending his life.

In the aftermath, the hashtags #JeSuisProf and #JeSuisSamuel began trending as expressions of solidarity with Samuel Paty and to raise awareness of the horrors wrought by extremists taking the law into their own hands.

Outrage swept across France, with thousands gathering to participate in protests in the wake of his murder.

As the investigation unfolded, a total of 16 people were taken into custody, including Anzorov’s younger brother, parents, and grandparents.

Brahim Chnina was also arrested after authorities discovered that he had been in direct contact with Anzorov nine times prior to Samuel’s murder. The 52 year old was later sentenced to 13 years in prison.

His daughter, whose identity was protected due to her age, tearfully addressed Samuel Paty’s family in court, saying:

She received an 18 month suspended sentence for the slander and false allegations made against her teacher, which proved to be the catalyst for his killing.

A total of five other students, aged 14–15, also faced criminal charges for violent intent. Four received suspended sentences, while the student who had pointed Samuel Paty out to his killer was given an electronic tag for six months.

A 65 year old Muslim preacher, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting violence. Following an investigation, French authorities announced that the Grande Mosquée de Pantin, where he served as an imam, would be closed for six months, after nearly 100 messages of support for the attack had been sent by its worshippers.

The mosque later expressed its “regret” for publishing videos that targeted Samuel Paty prior to his brutal murder.

Tragically, in the years following Samuel’s death, despite the French government’s promises to strengthen school security, another teacher, Dominique Bernard, suffered a similar fate in 2023 when he was stabbed in the throat by a 20 year old Muslim attacker.