Wiesenthal Centre Commemorating the Murder of Samuel Paty on 16 October

Paris – Two years ago, on 16 October 2020, a history andgeography teacher, Samuel Paty, was assassinated and beheaded in a small town near Paris by a lone-wolf Jihadist of Chechen-Russian origin, incited by an islamist Imam, reportedly because he had shown, among others, caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed to his students during classes on the subject of “freedom of expression”.

This Sunday, 16 October2022, at 2 p.m., the newly-formed French "Friends of the WiesenthalCentre" will commemorate Samuel Paty, to remember his role in fighting against hate and intimidation, and upholding freedom of expression.

Only last week, death threats were addressed against a Jewish teacher in the Paris suburb of Evry: “...The dirty Jew must stopbeing a smart-arse. We’ll do a SAMUEL PATY to him and to his old father, the Zionist rabbi. We don’t want Jews in the schools, stay in your synagogues...”

For Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Centre, "this occasion is to remember all other victims -Jewish or Gentile - of antisemitism, bigotry, intolerance and violence, such as Daniel Pearl."

Pearl, an American-Jewish journalist married to a French colleague, was kidnapped and murdered by Al-Qaeda in 2002, whileinvestigating links between a British Islamist and Jihadi groups based in Pakistan. The infamous video of his beheading was the first of a series, intended to intimidate and horrify theWest.

Over the past 20 years, among other murders - in France alone - that can also be considered as attacks on “freedom ofexpression”:

- 85-year-old MIreille Knoll in 2018. She often narrated her plight as Holocaustchild survivor;

- Sarah Halimi in 2017, a retired teacher, who was killed because she was a Jew.Her murderer was exonerated bucause "under the influence of cannabis";

- Father Hamel in 2016, beheaded while preaching his own freedom of religion to a handful of elderly faithful;

- the over 130 victims at a concert in the Bataclan theatre and in the nearby cafés in 2015, because they felt free to drink anddance;

- the 12 killed in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine offices in 2013, because of their caricatures of the ProphetMohammed...

All such murders were carried ot by Islamist extremists.

Samuels recalled, "our late mentor, Simon Wiesenthal, would have sadly repeated, 'further proof that, what begins with the Jews,does not end with them!'”

This 16 October commemoration is also to remember those - of any religion orpolitical orientation - who struggled to uphold the values of tolerance and freedom of expression in societies where denial, hate and violence arerunning wild.

The event is to be held at the Samuel Paty Square, facing the Sorbonne University in Paris.

For further information contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for newsupdates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin AmericanParliament (Parlatino).