A French city defied Islamist terrorism by projecting huge images of Charlie Hebdo cartoons on a local government building on Wednesday as heavily armed police officers stood guard.
The projections, which included caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, came as part of a French national tribute to middle-school teacher Samuel Paty which took place on Wednesday evening.
On Sunday, Twitter witnessed the hashtag #Boycottfranceproducts as one of its top trends. The calls to boycott French goods grew after President Emmanuel Macron criticised Islamists and vowed not to “give up cartoons” depicting the Prophet Mohammed, reported AFP. Macron’s comments, on Wednesday, came in response to the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, outside his school in a suburb outside Paris earlier this month, after he had shown cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a class he was leading on free speech.
Paty, a history teacher in the greater Paris area, was murdered on Friday by a refugee Islamist terrorist after Paty showed caricatures of Prophet Mohammed to his students in a class on freedom of speech.
One netizen said: "My name is Mahi and I am from Pakistan. I strongly Protest against disrespect of our beloved Prophet MUHAMMAD (PBUH) what is happening in France is not freedom of speech or expression but blatant display of religious hatred."
Another user said: "France should be blacklisted - but it will not be done - because the infidel only supports the infidel. So why does the Muslim not support the Muslim? All Muslims should unite and boycott France."
Here are some reactions to the same on Twitter:
In 2015, Islamist gunmen attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed most of the paper's editorial board for publishing caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.
The court cases surrounding the killings finally being heard this year led to another attempted attack in September 2020, with a new would-be killer attempting to attack the old offices of the paper again.
The latest attack over the Charlie Hebdo caricatures took place last week when Samuel Paty was beheaded after showing the drawings of Prophet Mohammed to his students in freedom of speech class.
Paty's beheading has prompted a strong response from the French government, including police raiding individuals and organisations that expressed support for the attack and attacker in the immediate aftermath of the beheading.
(Inputs from Agencies)
