Islamic associations and foreigners suspected of extremist religious beliefs have been raided by French Police on Monday; three days after a suspected Islamist beheaded a school teacher.
Samuel Paty, 47, a history teacher was murdered on Friday outside his school in a middle-class Paris suburb by an 18-year-old. Later, Police shot the attacker dead. The teenage attacker sought to avenge the use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in a class on freedom of expression. Muslims believe that any depiction of the Prophet (PBUH) is blasphemous.
A police source on Sunday said France was preparing to deport 213 foreigners who were on a government watch list and suspected of holding extreme religious beliefs, among whom about 150 are serving jail sentences.
A security source said, the deportations were already being worked on before Friday’s attack.
Following Paty’s killing, Police detained 10 people in connection with the attack in the 24 hours. Among them, prosecutors said, were the father of a pupil at Paty’s school and another person on the radar of intelligence services, who they said had used social media to campaign against the teacher.
Talking to Reuters, a Police source said that the man known to the intelligence agencies was Moroccan-born Abdelhakim Sefriuoi. Sefriuoi has for years used social media to fight against what he calls “Islamaphobia” and to put pressure on the government over its treatment of Muslims.
Sefriuoi has been on the French intelligence services watchlist for more than 15 years.