Unity Rally in France draws millions

French President Francois Hollande planned a unity march for 3:00 p.m. today, Sunday, January 11, 2015 local Paris time. The purpose of the march was to show solidarity in the face of the recent terrorist attacks against the capital.

This past week brought about the death of 17 individuals in Paris, all as a result of at least three separate jihadist attacks. The first incident occurred on Wednesday as the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were infiltrated, resulting in the death of 12 people. On Thursday, a police officer was shot, supposedly by Hayat Boumeddiene, the wife of Amedy Coulibaly, one of the assailants. Friday, the terrorists split their attention between a printing plant and a local deli. Four hostages at the deli were executed prior to the successful raid of the police. All three terrorists were shot and killed in the process of securing the sites under attack. In addition, Mashable reported that French police have arrested five other people connected to the attacks and pressed preliminary charges against the family members of all involved.

Several marches took place Saturday throughout the country, but none like the one that was held today. Leaders from around the world, including Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and at least 30 others were in attendance. The US was also represented by our Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley.


Image via Twitter by Jane Hartley.

In all, it is estimated that there were over one million people present. In fact, BBC world news reported that the interior ministry estimated a range of 1.3 million to two million, calling it an “unprecedented” number. It was speculated that the intent of the terrorists was to cause division among French citizens, leading non-Muslims to alienate Muslim citizens. The idea was that the alienated Muslims would then be more willing to join jihadist groups. The Nation explains that the only way to counteract such intentions is to support and embrace the communities that were supposed to be blamed and ostracized. That is exactly what happened today.

Image via Twitter from PoliticalWoman.

Many of the marchers carried signs decrying solidarity between French citizens of all religions and ethnicities; demonstrating a united stance against such fear tactics. “We are all cops,” “We are all Muslims,” “We are all French” are some of the slogans cited by CNN, who also reminds us of the Twitter hash tag #JeSuisCharlie, which means “I am Charlie” and is meant to show support for France’s defiance of terrorism rather than agreement with the publications of Charlie Hebdo.


Image via Twitter by Dave Berridge.

Although the attack against Charlie Hebdo was conducted by terrorists of a different nationality and for mostly religious rather than strictly political reasons, I cannot help but notice the similarity with the cyber hack against Sony purportedly done by a Korean terrorist group in retaliation for the film The Interview. Both involved groups interested in silencing or discrediting sources of free speech.

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