Nearly 80 percent of French citizens are in favor of allowing teachers in schools to use religious-themed cartoons in classrooms as means of promoting freedom of expression in the wake of recent brutal killing of a teacher over caricatures on Islamic prophet Mohammad, the IFOP polling institute stated on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) Nearly 80 percent of French citizens are in favor of allowing teachers in schools to use religious-themed cartoons in classrooms as means of promoting freedom of expression in the wake of recent brutal killing of a teacher over caricatures on Islamic prophet Mohammad, the IFOP polling institute stated on Thursday.
French history teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a 18-year-old teenager of the Chechen origin in Paris outskirts after showing cartoons of prophet Mohammad to his students, causing widespread outrage among Muslim parents, one of whom has been charged with complicity in terrorist murder along with six other people detained earlier.
"This study also captures the support of public opinion for the teaching profession since 78% of French people consider it justified for teachers to show their students drawings caricaturing or mocking religions in order to illustrate forms of freedom of expression," the IFOP said.
It added that 24 percent of those surveyed believe teachers are not provided with enough protection in case of incidents like Paty's.
Overall, the survey noted that 89 percent of respondents consider the Islamic threat to be high, and 79 percent believe that the nation is at war with Islamism after the attack on the teacher. However, it added, the number of people that consider Islamic threat to be exceptionally high currently stands at 38 percent, and has not reached the 50 percent threshold, as it did after January 2015 Paris terror acts.
Terrorist attacks in 2015 occurred subsequently on January 7-9 and resulted in 17 fatalities, twelve of which were members of editorial staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killed for publishing caricatures depicting prophet Muhammad.
According to the survey, 40 percent of the respondents believe in the government's ability to combat terrorist threat. In particular, French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin share the same confidence rate of 37 percent in the fight against Islamism.
The IFOP conducted the survey from Tuesday to Wednesday by interviewing online 1,002 French citizens aged 18 and older.
