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FAUX PAS

Macron Scrambling to Salvage Liberal Reputation Worldwide After Targeting Islam

After a spate of Islamist attacks in France, President Macron decried a “crisis in Islam,” intervened in mosques and ordered a border crackdown. Now he’s fighting off the backlash.

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JEAN-FRANCOIS BADIAS

PARIS—On October 16, French history teacher Samuel Paty was walking home after a day at school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine when he was attacked by an 18-year-old, who beheaded him in broad daylight and posted a photo of his body online.

The attacker, Abdullakh Anzarov, a Chechen who had lived in France for over 10 years, had traveled to the town looking for Paty after hearing about him online. The teacher had shown his 13-year-old pupils a cartoon mocking the Prophet Muhammad, angering some Muslim parents who denounced him in an online video.

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