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Unsuccessful French ban on anti-Islamophobia protests

The photo shows an anti-Islamophobia march held in Paris, April 22, 2024. ( Photo by EPA-EFE)

A nationwide protest against Islamophobia was initially banned by the French government, but thousands turned out in Paris despite the risk of facing judicial intimidation.

Dozens of organizations marched in Paris against Islamophobia and racism, as Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing have increased state-sponsored repression against Europe's largest Muslim community.

A major theme of the march was protecting children. Since October 7th, 2003, children as young as 10 years old had been charged with so-called 'apology for terrorism', while a child of eight was falsely targeted for praying during recess.

Such scandals have many saying that non-white children are no longer being treated like children but as suspected fanatics, delinquents and full-grown adults.

We Muslims are enduring so much Islamophobia these days, and it's not like there wasn't a lot of Islamophobia in France already.

 The targeting of our children is a step too far and it's incredible that they have taken this shameful step.

French Protestor 01

As France is accused of targeting Muslim children at home, the French elite are giving military and political cover to Israel's mass murder in Gaza of an estimated 15,000 children and the orphaning of some 20,000 others.

It's totally unjust how we are watching murder, torture and the bombing of embassies and nobody is allowed to say anything.

We're here to say stop the violence against Palestinian and Iranian people.

French Protestor 02

A decade ago, during another Israeli invasion of Gaza, France became the first country to ever ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

They banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations for a whole month after the October 7th counterattack on Hamas, handing out hundreds of thousands of Euros in fines and making mass arrests.

Police initially banned this March, claiming it was a threat to public order and possibly anti-Semitic, however, it was overturned at the last moment.

 Many contend that the effort is proof of a long-running double standard against non-whites and non-Jews.

Anytime there is a march about Palestine or Islamophobia, the interior minister, in whatever administration, seeks to ban it. The idea that we are anti-Semitic is total nonsense. I get the feeling that I'm more French than many others who aren't of Algerian descent as I am, because many have totally abandoned the longtime values of French political culture.

Protestor 03

As was the case following the two-year state of emergency France declared in November 2015, many have been shocked by the lack of outcry at this latest targeting of the Muslim community, despite perpetual bragging of being the alleged birthplace of human rights.


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