Is the high school a “nest of hypocritical vipers” loyal to Salafism as a former teacher claims or did the teacher create a “conspiracy theory” without evidence? The two arguments were vehemently opposed on Friday during a defamation trial closed to the public in Lille. The establishment, under state contract and classified in 2013 by certain medias as the best high school in France, attacked Soufiane Zitouni for a letter to his colleagues, accusing the administration of spreading an interpretation of Islam close to Salafism. The scandal was picked up by Libération on February 6.
Zitouni came to the trial alone. “I am inspired by Socrates, who defended himself without a lawyer,” he told the press. Before the jury, he denounced “a mixing of religion and politics” at the high school: “a math teacher who is an occasional imam and clearly pro-Hamas,” argued Mr. Zitouni. “How can we entrust students to teachers who are close to a terrorist organization?” he asked.
Following the affair, the school’s director conducted an investigation and issued a report in which he believed that the school “completely” respected the terms of its contract with the State. “When you argue, contrary to your vocation as a teacher, that the students are anti-Semitic, you are clearly abusing freedom of expression,” he told Mr. Zitouni, who never presented him with evidence before his accusations.
“This symbolic violence created injuries within families and stained the students’ curriculum,” argued the lawyer. “In the future when a student is looking for work, the employer will remember the serious, abusive, and insulting accusation.”
“I use the expression nest of vipers. A viper has a forked tongue, it symbolizes double- talk, I could have said a can of worms,” explained a teacher. He goes even farther: “I hate hypocrisy, lying, double-talk, and I think that’s what causes a lot of harm these days to French Muslims and in the world. On one hand they say we are democratic and republicans, and on the other they constantly question our values.”
