French schoolchildren observed a minute’s silence on Monday in honour of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, under threat of punishment from the prime minister. France is on maximum security alert following Mr Paty’s murder last month and the killing of three people in a frenzied knife attack in a Nice church by a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant on Thursday. Mr Paty was killed after showing his class cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. Jean Castex, the prime minister, warned that pupils who refused to take part in the tribute to Mr Paty would face punishment. He did not specify what the punishment would be. A number of children in mainly Muslim areas declined to observe a minute’s silence after 12 people were massacred in 2015 at the office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The latest Islamist attacks have again laid bare deep divisions in France. Some Muslims see its secular laws and the separation of religion and state as a means of suppressing their religious practices.
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