PARIS—President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Wednesday to a French history teacher beheaded by an Islamist radical as a “quiet hero” dedicated to instilling the democratic values of the French Republic in his pupils.
Samuel Paty’s attacker, a teenager of Chechen origin, had wanted to avenge the teacher’s use of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a class on freedom of expression for 13-year-olds. Muslims see any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous.
