Former French Inspector General of National Education Jean-Pierre Obin has blamed the far-left ideology of teachers and administrators for the spread of Islamist ideas in schools.
Mr Obin, who has authored a book entitled How Islamism Was Allowed to Enter Schools, stated that both administrators and teachers “are in denial or ideological complacency in relation to Islamism”.
“It is this part of the extreme left, very present in the National Education, that thinks that attacking Islamism is attacking Islam. [They think that] Muslim students are victims, and therefore we must not have the same attitude towards them as towards other students,” he told broadcaster Europe1.
Obin went on to add that 2015, the year of the Charlie Hebdo terror attack, was a major wake up call for the French establishment of just how much Islamist ideas had spread among young people and especially educated young people.
“Since then, research, surveys, give a much more precise panorama of this penetration, this impregnation of a part of the Muslim youth by Islamist ideology,” he said.
Obin’s comments come just days after an 18-year-old Chechen radical Islamic terrorist murdered and beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty who came under fire from the Muslim community for showing Mohammed cartoons to his class.
A recent survey released by the Institut Français d’Opinion Publique (Ifop) revealed that 26 per cent of French Muslims under the age of 25 outright refused to condemn the 2015 Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks that left a dozen people dead.
The study, which was partnered with the satirical magazine, found that 72 per cent of Muslims condemned the terrorist attack, compared to 88 per cent of the French public in general.
Nearly half, 41 per cent, of Muslims said they would refuse to take part in a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack.
Earlier this week it was also revealed that a teacher in the Paris no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis had shown his class video of Pakistanis burning French flags in September in response to Charlie Hebdo republishing the Mohammed cartoons.
While the teacher intended for the video to be a lesson in intolerance, he was shocked that the pupils cheered for the protesters.
“I thought it would make them think, but most of the pupils stood up and applauded,” the teacher said.