Two months ago, one year to the day after the beheading of Samuel Paty, a square was inaugurated in the 5th arrondissement of Paris bearing the name of the teacher murdered by a Chechen jihadist. Unfortunately, two months after the plaques in question were placed near the Sorbonne, one of them was vandalised. The incident was reported on Twitter on Monday December 20th by Nicolas Gavrilenko, treasurer of the Union des familles laïques (Ulaf). The association official shared two photos, one of which shows the original sign. It reads: “History and geography teacher, murdered on October 16th 2020, victim of Islamist terrorism”. However, the damage reported by Nicolas Gavrilenko is not without significance: only the word “Islamist” was painted over with white paint.
The vandalised plaque now reads solely: “Samuel Paty (…) Victim of Terrorism”. A highly political damage whose deeper meaning has not escaped Nicolas Gavrilenko: “The plaque that names the square adjacent to the Sorbonne after him has been vandalised and is a sign of the deliberate delusion of some”, writes the secular activist, insisting on the truth: “It is ISLAMIST terrorism to which Samuel Paty fell victim”. He concluded his message by calling on the mayor’s office of the 5th arrondissement (Libres, a movement founded by Valérie Pécresse) to restore the damaged plaque “as soon as possible”. So far, the mayor’s office of the arrondissement does not seem to have reacted.