The day after the death of a teacher in the knife attack in Arras, which left one dead and three injured, the city woke up bruised on Saturday October 14. The school, symbol of the Republic, was once again attacked. Decryption with sociologist Jean Viard.
A knife attack in the high school of a school campus in Arras left one dead and three injured on Friday October 13. A former student of the establishment, registered S, aged 20, stabbed two teachers and a technical agent around 11 a.m. The dead man is a 57-year-old teacher, a French professor at the college.
The main suspect, a Chechen born in Russia, was taken into police custody. A knife attack which comes three years, almost to the day, after the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history professor also killed by an Islamist.
franceinfo: Jean Viard, is it once again this symbol of the Republic, the school, which is attacked?
Jean Viard: Yes, the school, the Republic, and then undoubtedly also, a form of solidarity with Hamas, which means that we are once again in a cycle of violence, of massacres. The one that was committed, of course in Israel, by Hamas militants, and then the one that was committed by this young person, against a teacher. It all goes together. At a time when, basically, we had somewhat forgotten terrorism and attacks, there was a period of somewhat calm.
There, we’re back in a sequence that’s going to be terrible. Because obviously, when there are hundreds of victims in Israel – there is already a response from Israel – we enter a kind of immense spiral of violence. Obviously, people among us who are religious fanatics will perhaps say to themselves: this is the time to act, and in particular against teachers, because there have been many requests in schools.
The war between Israel and the Palestinians, for today’s young people, is the Middle Ages, it was 70 years ago. So it’s normal for them to have questions, to ask why it continues, why it’s always like this, what we’re discussing, and in fact we’re discussing nothing besides. So that’s a bit the crux of this drama, and of course the drama of Arras, which is terrible for the teaching community, which has already been affected. Teaching was a profession, I was going to say, peaceful, but we know that this is no longer the case.
An immense movement of emotion, since yesterday, there have been these town halls lit up in blue, white, red. Gatherings of teachers too, who wear a black armband. They have, as you said, this very difficult task today, of explaining history, ongoing conflicts, history almost live, sometimes facing distrust or intolerance?
Yes, but because we don’t all have the same memory. There are around 15%, maybe a little more, of French people who are children born in former colonies. There are some for whom independence was a victory, and others for whom it was a defeat. And there, in the matter that concerns us, even people, at the limit, who are scandalized by Hamas terrorism, can completely support the Palestinian cause, considering in fact that for 70 years, there have been people who live in unacceptable conditions.
I was the editor of the parish priest of Gaza, the Father Moussallem, because there was a Catholic community in Gaza – there were 7,000 Christians in Gaza, there are only 1,000 left – so we have to be careful, this is not a war of religions, it is a war of territories. And besides, the priest of Gaza was one of the PLO executives. So let’s not agree with Hamas by saying that this is a religious war. Indeed, it is a war. Hamas is a religious party, which took power in Gaza, because the other forces weakened or disappeared – or they assassinated them for that matter – but it is not a war of religions, it It’s a turf war, and it’s important to put it in that perspective.
And to return to the question of the role of teachers and the place of teachers in France today, how can we talk about these subjects? The conflict in the Middle East, but also all the religious questions linked to the various attacks that France has experienced over the last ten years? How can I explain this to everyone in a calm manner?
It’s very complicated because even in classes, there are young people or children who don’t have the same opinion at all. Because at home, when they come home in the evening, there are parents who say: Ah anyway, finally the Palestinians are moving. And then others who say no anyway. Because look, the French Council of Muslim Faith, the Muslim Federation of France, denounced the Arras attack. This is why I insist on the fact that this is not a war of religion because otherwise, we will not get out of it.
And teachers, they have an extremely difficult job. When you think that there are people who think the earth is flat today, there are people who don’t actually accept Darwinism. So we are in a time where there are obscurantisms that are creeping back into societies. We cannot return to ancient societies, where in fact it was the religions which structured the imagination, and therefore the battle will be there, and the teachers became fighters, even though they had not necessarily chosen this job for that.