Moalims

PARIS: A French nursery school teacher claimed on Monday he was stabbed in his classroom by a supporter of the militant Islamic State (IS), but later admitted to prosecutors that he had invented the story.

The 45-year-old teacher at a school in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, was hospitalised with light stab wounds in his side and throat.

He had earlier claimed that a man in overalls and a balaclava had arrived while he was preparing his class on Monday, grabbed a box cutter and scissors that were in the room, and attacked him.

The teacher further claimed that the man shouted: “This is Daesh. This is a warning.” Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS.

Prosecutors said they were still questioning the teacher, whose injuries were not considered life-threatening, over why he lied.

With France on edge a month on from attacks in Paris, and with the IS calling for attacks on French schools, the investigation had been immediately taken over by anti-terrorism prosecutors.

The case even prompted a visit by Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who vowed to boost security at schools.

The IS’s French-language magazine Dar-al-Islam had called upon its followers last month to kill teachers in the French education system, describing them as “enemies of Allah”.

“This education, in the case of France in particular, is a means of propaganda used to impose the corrupt way of thought established by the Judeo-masonry,” it said.

“Muslims must know the French education system is built against religion and Islam as the only religion of truth cannot cohabit with this fanatic secularism.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2015