On Wednesday, January, 28th, in Nice, Ahmed, an 8 year old boy and his father, were summoned by the Nice St Augustin’s Police. The 8 year old was accused of condoning terrorism as he opposed Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
On January 8th, Ahmed, a 3rd grade child, is at school. His teacher asks him if “he is Charlie”. The 8 year old boy, who is Muslim, explains that he refuses Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet, and naively says that is his on the terrorists’ side.
Upset, the teacher sends him to the School Principal who asks him three times in front of the rest of the class: Are you Charlie?
The child reported that he has been psychologically abused and described humiliations on the part of some teachers. Suffering from diabetes, he says that, following the incident, teachers took his insulin from him.
That’s the very same School Principal who lodged a complaint against the child, accusing him of condoning terrorism, and against his father for intruding into the school, as since the accident, he escorted his distressed child in the morning and at lunch in order to reassure him.
The child and his father were heard during almost two hours by police officers, about the Ahmed’s comments. When they asked him “Do you know what terrorism is? he answered “I don’t know”.
Ahmed’s parents made a considerable teaching work to their child to enable him to better understand the events. But what happened at school deeply traumatized him. He now suffers from sleep and behavioural disorders.
Being heard by the police has been an additional trauma for him. This event shows the mass hysteria we live into since January.
The CCIF has been following this case from the start, along with the family’s lawyer. We continue to support Ahmed and his family.
CCIF will also alert the public authorities to get to the bottom of this issue and clarify the responsibilities of the teachers and police officers handling the case
