After teacher’s beheading, French Jewish groups urge members to rally against Islamic terrorism

French Jewish groups have called on their supporters to join a rally today in memory of the schoolteacher murdered Friday after he showed caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad to his students.

The rally in memory of Samuel Paty, who was decapitated outside the school where he worked by an 18-year-old refugee from Chechnya who appeared to have been motivated by videos on social media, is focused on safeguarding freedom of expression. But the Jewish groups say it should also call attention to the threat of Islamic terrorism in France.

CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, calls on its followers to show up for the rally in Paris’s Republique Square, citing the “escalating nature of Islamist attacks.” So does the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism

“Islamist horror and Islamist terror have hit France again,” says the anti-Semitism watchdog group’s statement, which called for the expulsion of Islamist terrorism suspects from France. “It is time to take real action to eradicate this danger that comes from within.”

— JTA