French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer revealed cases of a dozen Muslim public school teachers who have been radicalised, along with a far greater number of radicalised pupils.
Blanquer announced ten cases of radicalisation on Friday morning, stating, “These are cases that can be of varying intensity, these are things that give rise to the first vigilance on our part,” broadcaster Europe1 reports.
Blanquer said that while some of the cases may not seem overly serious, they were being taken seriously by authorities, such as a case in Torcy of a teacher who made “anti-republican remarks” in his local mosque. The teacher was dismissed from his position despite having no other marks against his teaching record.
A professor of history and geography who works in Seine-Saint-Denis, the notorious no-go suburb north of Paris, spoke out about colleagues he suspected may have been radicalised, saying, “The teaching staff is not immune [to radicalisation]” and adding that he had already seen a Muslim colleague refuse to shake hands with women.
“As a teacher, I do not have to intervene with the colleague to tell him what to think, what to do,” he said, but added he could inform his superiours asking if such behaviour is what the education system wants to transmit to pupils and others.
The number of suspected radicalised students dwarfs that of the teachers, with there being as many as a thousand known cases, many concentrated in the Île-de-France region that contains both Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis.
Earlier this year, a report from two French MPs revealed a large concern among public sector workers that their colleagues were also becoming radicalised.
A trade unionist from the RATP, the company in charge of the public transportation system in Paris, claimed that “practising Muslims are targeting non-practising female believers,” among other behaviours.
Police are also more concerned than ever about radicalisation following the stabbing attack in a Paris police headquarters by radical Muslim employee Mickaël Harpon, who killed four people.
Some officers say they have previously been reticent with reporting potentially radicalised colleagues for fear of being branded “Islamophobic”.
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