French teenager who received death threats after calling Islam ‘a s**t religion’ is moved to a new school ‘so she can continue her life’
- 16-year-old Mila started at her new school on Monday after receiving threats
- France’s education ministry stepped in and said it had found a ‘positive solution’
- The teenager was taken out of her school in Lyon after row over Instagram video
A French teenager who received death threats after calling Islam a ‘s**t religion’ has been moved to a new school to ‘guarantee her safety’.
16-year-old Mila started at her new school on Monday after France’s education ministry stepped in to find a ‘positive solution’.
The teenager had been taken out of her previous educational establishment in Lyon after receiving a barrage of abuse over her Instagram video.
French teenager Mila (pictured on a French television programme ) received death threats after calling Islam a ‘s**t religion’ and has now been moved to a new school
‘We have found her a solution which guarantees her safety and allows her to continue her life and education,’ education minister Gabriel Attal told LCI television.
‘It’s a positive solution, it was very difficult for her not to return to school.’
Asked if the move was ‘geographically feasible’, the minister said he would not provide details about the school’s location.
The row broke out last month after Mila was subjected to homophobic abuse by a Muslim commenter online.
Mila hit back in an Instagram video, saying the Koran was ‘full of hate’ and calling Islam a ‘s**t religion’.
She went on: ‘I am not racist, not at all. You cannot be racist towards a religion. I said what I thought, you will not make me regret it.
‘There are still people who will get excited, I clearly don’t give a damn, I say what I want, what I think.’
In a subsequent television appearance she stood by her comments, saying: ‘I absolutely do not regret what I said, it was really what I thought.’
Defending her right to ‘blaspheme’, she said: ‘I don’t have to hide for this reason. I don’t have to stop living for this.
Mila (pictured) was removed from her sixth-form college in Lyon and has faced a torrent of insults and threats to rape and kill her
‘But I would still like to say that in some way I am a little bit sorry towards the people who I might have hurt who practise their religion in peace, and I never wanted to target human beings,’ she said.
‘I simply wanted to… blaspheme… I wanted to talk about a religion, and say what I thought about it, and that’s all.’
After her outburst the teenager was subjected to a barrage of further abuse, including threats to rape and kill her.
The prosecutor’s office in Vienne, near Lyon, is believed to be investigating the comments on Mila’s profile in an attempt to identify the perpetrators.
Secularism is a zealously guarded ideal in France but left-wing politicians and elites have been accused of failing to stand up for the teenager.
‘It is the left that traditionally defends secularism in this country. It saddens me that it has not done so in this case,’ her lawyer Richard Malka told The Times.
‘No human rights association has protested or expressed solidarity with the girl whose life has suddenly been plunged into hiding.’
The teenager’s lawyer, Richard Malka (pictured), accused the French left of failing to stand up for the teenager despite the country’s secular ideal