Locals gather to pray for the decapitated Parisian teacher Photograph:( AFP )
Over 80 investigations had been launched for online hate speech following the killing of the teacher
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday that a fatwa has been launched against the beheaded teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class.
''The father of a schoolgirl and a known Islamist militant had urged the killing of a Samuel Patty, French history teacher,'' Darmanin said in an interview.
"They apparently launched a fatwa against the teacher," minister Gerald Darmanin told a radio channel.
He added that over 80 investigations had been launched for online hate speech following the killing of the teacher, who had been the target of vitriolic attacks on the internet.
Pas une minute de répit pour les ennemis de la République.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) October 19, 2020
👉+ de 80 enquêtes ouvertes pour haine en ligne suite à l’attentat de vendredi.
👉 51 structures associatives verront toute la semaine des visites des services de l’Etat et plusieurs d’entres elles seront dissoutes. pic.twitter.com/r7F8UOTHJH
Meanwhile, the French police on Monday raided the homes of "dozens" of Islamist militants three days after the decapitation.
Earlier, thousands of people gathered across France on Sunday to support teachers and defend freedom of expression.
His assailant was shot dead by French police as they tried to arrest him, police and prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they were treating the incident as "a murder linked to a terrorist organisation" and related to a "criminal association with terrorists". An anti-terror probe has been launched into the incident.
The assault happened on the outskirts of Paris at around 5 pm (1500 GMT) near a school in Conflans Saint-Honorine, a western suburb of the French capital.
The attack comes only days after a follower of the Islamic State militant group who attacked a police officer outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris with a hammer was sentenced to 28 years in jail.
The allegations are similar to charges brought last month against a 25-year old Pakistani man who wounded two people in a meat cleaver attack to avenge the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.