French teen beats up teacher over lesson on Morocco

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) - A French teenager has been charged with assault after beating up a teacher following a row over a lesson on Morocco, his school said Thursday.

The incident had initially been reported to have been triggered by a lesson on religion that had touched on the subject of Islam.

But Dominique Margueritat, the head of the Tregey Lycee in Bordeaux, said: "The row was about the political system in Morocco, the country the pupil comes from. It was a run-of-the-mill kind of thing that you get in teaching, nothing to do with religion."

France is home to at least four million Muslims and leaders of the largest Islamic community in Europe have been angered recently by a controversial ban on women wearing full veils and a rise in hate crimes.