SHAFAQNA – In order to bring you, our readers, closer to realities and truths, Shafaqna will conduct a series of exclusive podcast interviews with renown political analysts politicians, officials, religious leaders, and academics.

As always our aim is simple – knowledge.

 
In a world run, and based on falsehood, Truth has become somewhat of a rare commodity – still, we ought to seek what has been dissimulated as to rise truly free.

 
As Imam Ali said: “Ask in order to understand, and do not ask in order to find fault, for surely the ignorant man who wants to learn resembles a man of knowledge, and surely a man of knowledge who wants to be difficult resembles an ignorant man who wants to find fault.”
Following is the interview Catherine Shakdam – the Director of Program for the Shafaqna Institute conducted with Salah Lamrani –  French writer and intellectual.
A support committee for Salah Lamrani is formed
Translated from French by Jenny Bright 
Support Salah Lamrani in his struggle : https://www.gofundme.com/justice4salah 
State of madness

Romain Rolland Middle School
What is taking place in Tremblay en France is serious. At the time of writing these lines, Salah Lamrani is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation in a police structure. (This is not happening either in the USSR of Brezhnev nor in Putin’s Russia…)
We met Salah on Monday, May 9th and have come to the same view of things as that depicted below, by the collective of parents supporting this young teacher.
With others, we believe it is possible or probable that this whole affair, without serious foundation, has its real origin in the content of Salah Lamrani’s blog, an anti-Zionist blog, favourable to Putin and the Lebanese Hezbollah. It could be a simple crime of opinion or an underground and manipulative ideological and political attack.
We call for a de-escalation, a return to reason and the reinstatement of a rational situation.
Valmy Committee, May 11th, 2016
State of madness
Romain Rolland Middle School
A letter from a parent’s group
The purpose of the group is to inform you about the reality of events and the dangers we incur by remaining passive in this case.
As we have announced, here are the answers to your concerns and the results of our investigations.
For weeks, our children have witnessed a situation they describe as unfair involving a teacher they like and who, according to them, is simply defending his reputation and rights.
We fear (in regard to their often violent words) that they come to nurture a hatred against our Republic’s institutions:
– the National Education, which they consider to be the author of events
– the police, who they consider as accomplices.
 
The school “ceased work” (from April 11 to 15) with the support (or collusion?) of the academic inspection.
With what motive: strike? right of withdrawal? The rights to strike and withdrawal are subject to strict legislation:
⇒ Strikers can not be within their workplace.
On April 11th, 2016, our children were outside in the rain while teachers were inside, nice and dry!
The rest of the week the teachers were actually present within the school premises.

⇒ The right of withdrawal must be the response to a serious and imminent danger inside the workplace. However, the school (the workplace) is secure. The alleged assault on a supervisor took place on public road (remember that students witnessed the opposite: a teacher being assaulted by a supervisor).
An employee who would exert a right to strike or withdrawal if he feared a pseudo aggression outside the company incurs punishment, dismissal and/or lost wages! But the salaries of these people are paid by our taxes so there will probably be no sanctions in cases of abuse.
We have received no testimony confirming any pseudo disorders during the shuttleswhile their alleged danger has been present since February (when the sit-in of the teacher began). The physical presence of the teacher at the gate every day does not bother our children but it does bother the school staff, as it reminds them of their actions.
The real danger lies in the attitude of the school which threatens children with sanctions (or with calling their parents) just for approaching or talking to their teacher. On April 8th, 2016, around 3:20 p.m., the students saw a supervisor (sent by the Principal to the children gathering around their teacher to make them leave) violently attack their teacher. The school says that our children are mistaken: it is the teacher who assaulted the supervisor!
These pressures and lies threaten the healthy psychological development of our children.
The School’s mission is to share with students the values of the Republic, such as those of secularism and equality before the law  of all citizens. The secularism of the school offers students the conditions to form their personality… to exercise their free will…   protecting them from any pressure preventing them from making their own choices… and it implies the rejection of all violence and discrimination (Excerpts from the Charter of Secularism).
This pretext (false aggression, closing of the school) was created simply to manipulate parents because the school needed support to get rid of their problem.
We mobilized our resources to obtain answers from high places and in the end we conclude that all these people (Parents Council, academic inspectors and Unions) are really annoyed! Nobody was able to explain this teacher’s four month suspension and we heard : “it’s omerta, here… nothing in his file… sensitive file… we do not get specific answers… our questions are an inconvenience…”
Three emails in particular led to the suspension of the teacher:

– A “warning” email about the private blog (suspicion of terrorism? fear of indoctrination?) dating from November, when these rumours were spread throughout the school.
– A letter from the Management which refers, inter alia, to:
⇒ a heated discussion during a Board of Administration: the teacher wanted to talk about the closure of clubs he had been running (fear of indoctrination?). He had protested and demanded an explanatory written notification. Management had thus found a pretext to obtain the effective closure of the clubs: a non-compliance with “procedure”! He is accused only of having made signing sheets instead of registration forms. (A simple reminder of the “procedure” would have sufficed.)

⇒ a meeting of incitement against Mr Lamrani organized by the Parents Council on January 25 during which we saw the management, in full hysterics (screaming, running in all directions and threatening to call the police) trying to force the teacher (not suspended at the time) to leave the facility. The teacher waited in the yard waiting to talk to parents who wished to. He was able to report the harassment of which he was a victim and got the support of parents. (the report of the Director tells a very different story).
⇒ relationship problems between faculty, staff and teacher.

– A letter signed by the FCPE requiring with no foundation and on pain of scandal the replacement of the teacher. (Many of us received it in our letter boxes).
 
At the time of his suspension no fact challenged the competence of the teacher and there was no evidence of anything constituting misconduct which could warrant a 4-month suspension. In fact, this teacher was not subject to a link of “subordination” at both meetings. Regarding other elements, he said he did not want to chat to people who would accuse him of being a terrorist behind his back. He also claims his “right to opinion and freedom of expression as a blogger”.
Later, we discovered the facts alleged in the letter of invitation to the Disciplinary Board (dated the day of the alleged assault and released by the teacher): failures of hierarchical obedience, failures of reserve, neutrality; damaging the image of the National Education and threats. We are seeing the emergence of new facts that happened after the suspension.
All this for a mere question of image? They seek by all means to get out of the mess they got into by trying to make us think that this teacher is a danger to students, a terrorist. First of all by delivering a suspension that seems unfounded (even illegal?), inventing an alleged assault, taking hostage the children’s lessons (“We will not do anything if you do not act”) and by conveying their lies in the media. In the article of Le Parisien on the 12th of April (after the alleged assault) we read that a suspended teacher prevented the functioning of a school. In the last article of April 26, 2016 (after the actions of the Group), we read the version of the two parts but Le Parisien still do not mention the daily pressure on our children which has yet been denounced by parents to the competent authorities and the Mayor of Tremblay.
They hope to succeed during this parody of a Disciplinary Board (joint committee Administration / Unions) because the fate of the teacher has already been decided in high places, his dismissal had been announced by the Academic Inspector at a public meeting on 11th April 2016 (an example for the state which wants to muzzle its civil servants flouting their constitutional rights?).
We note in the received testimonies that the school seeks to make us believe that this teacher is crazy and dangerous by directing us to his blog. It is true that this blog reflects a lot of “anger” since this suspension but anyone with an ounce of humanity can understand that this man was hurt by these events (slander, suspension, aggression…) and outraged by the threats against children who speak to him.
 
We want to reassure parents. This gentleman is not a “madman, afanatic”: he simply defends his reputation and his violated rights. He does not represent any danger to the children.
These are the lies and the measures of retaliation of the management (threats, summonses, prevention of freedom of speech) that harm our children.
April 28th, 2016
 
Written by the Parents Group
Attachments area
Preview YouTube video State of Emergency : a French teacher fired because of his blog (Shafaqna interview)

State of Emergency : a French teacher fired because of his blog (Shafaqna interview)