Prophet muhammad
France defends law combatting 'pernicious' Islamist radicalism
President Emmanuel Macron has pushed the legislation - which would tighten rules on issues ranging from religious-based education to polygamy - after a spate of...
Three other pupils were charged with complicity earlier this month over the beheading last month of Paty, who had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a lesson on free speech.
Ultra-conservative Pakistan has seen scattered protests since French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to criticise Islam as part of freedom of speech, triggering anger across the Muslim world.
The French president sparked protests across the Muslim world after last month's murder of teacher Samuel Paty - who had shown his class a cartoon of Muhammad - by saying France would never renounce its laws permitting blasphemous caricatures.
The bloodshed inside Nice's Notre-Dame basilica early Thursday morning added new tension in a country already on the highest alert after a string of attacks blamed on suspected Islamists in recent weeks.
Smaller anti-France protests also took place in the Middle East after Macron's defence of the right to publish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad - a position that has sparked anger across the Muslim world.
A knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in Nice on Thursday, slitting the throat of at least one of them, in an attack that triggered global shock.
His office also vowed to take 'legal and diplomatic actions' over the depiction of the 66-year-old leader drinking a can of beer in his underpants and looking up a woman's skirt.
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to take the fight to Islamist radicals after the 16 October beheading of a history teacher who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to pupils in a class discussion on free speech.
According to reports in the Middle East picked up by British tabloid The Sun, World Cup winner Pogba wanted to end his international career after Macron vowed to take the fight to Islamic radicals after the October 16 beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty.
The case comes amid heightened racial tensions following the jihadist killing last week of a French teacher who had shown his pupils cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
France will not give up cartoons, President Emmanuel Macron vowed Wednesday in a homage to teacher Samuel Paty, beheaded for having shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to pupils in a lesson on free speech.
Samuel Paty was attacked on his way home on Friday from the junior high school where he taught in the suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
Police have carried out dozens of raids, while the government has ordered the six-month closure of a mosque and plans to dissolve a group that supports Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Police sources said earlier that the 18-year-old killer had exchanged messages on WhatsApp with the man who wanted Samuel Paty fired after his daughter told him how the teacher had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on free speech.
The interior ministry said the mosque in Pantin, which has some 1,500 worshippers, would be shut on Wednesday night for six months.
They were among 15 people being held over the incident, one of whom was previously convicted for terror-related crimes and admitted to having had contact with the man who killed Samuel Paty for showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to his class, the source said.
The raids came a day after tens of thousands of people took part in rallies countrywide to honour teacher Samuel Paty and defend freedom of expression, including the right to show cartoons regarded by many Muslims as insulting.
The killing of history teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb Friday has sparked outrage in France and memories of a wave of Islamist violence in 2015 sparked by caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published by the satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo'.