LESS than two weeks ago a French teacher was murdered outside his school. Not only was he murdered but he had his head hacked off. The murderer posted an image of the severed head on Twitter. This followed a hate campaign by parents who saw in the teacher’s attempt to discuss the issue of freedom of speech with his pupils, the act of blasphemy.

Unlike George Floyd or Jo Cox, the name of Samuel Paty will soon be forgotten. Indeed it is likely that the majority of the British and indeed world population have never heard of this man. There are no badges, no big companies queuing up, no slogans on the TV and there are few if any politicians standing up in parliament to denounce this grotesque act. Outside of France, Paty is almost invisible.

Samuel Paty’s death is a more uncomfortable one for the modern Western elites because the man who killed him was a Muslim, an Islamist extremist, offended by the use of Charlie Hebdo images of Muhammad in Paty’s classroom.

To denounce his killer’s act, to turn him into a folk devil, risks the cry of Islamophobia.

But there is more than just the terror of being called a racist that has left our politicians and commentariat tight lipped. The deafening silence is because, at their core, our modern “liberal” elites are cut from the same cloth as this intolerant terrorist.

The murderer, Abdullah Anzorov, and the parents who tried to get Paty sacked do not believe in freedom of speech. They see genuine liberal tolerance and the freedom to be offensive as hateful, something that needs to be cancelled, shut down, extinguished.

Here in Scotland, we find that pressure to restrict freedom of speech comes in the form of the police who arrest Christian street preachers, and shut them down for daring to express their “hateful” beliefs. Meanwhile, the oppressive hate crime bill travels on its merry way through Holyrood, a bill so intolerant even the police don’t want it.

While no one is comparing the actions of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Humza Yousaf with those of Anzorov, I have a heartfelt question.

Could you please explain to me and the Scottish people what, in essence, at the level of principle, is the difference in attitudes between you, your cancel culture, your intolerant punishment of incorrect incantations, and the outlook of the medieval-minded butcher Abdulla Anzorov?

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