Sunday, September 16, 2012

Paris in the (Arab) Spring

Muslim demonstrators were thwarted by police yesterday in their attempts to breach the perimeter of the American embassy in Paris.

The video below is taken from a French TV news report. Many thanks to Michael Laudahn for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


France 24 posted an article in English about the same incident:

Paris Police Detain 100 at US Embassy Protest

Police in Paris detained around 100 people Saturday for taking part in an unauthorised, impromptu demonstration near the US embassy against a provocative anti-Islam film, police said.

Dozens of men, women and children who police said were possibly linked to Salafists, “demonstrated violently around the US embassy and clashed with police” on Saturday afternoon.

Two or three officers were slightly hurt in the protest. Most of those detained were men, said police.

The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) denounced the Paris protest.

“We regret that this demonstration occurred, especially if violent force was used against the police,” Mohamed Moussaoui told AFP.

“One should not associate all of France’s Muslims with marginal events like this,” he added.

“Muslims should use fair and lawful means to defend their religion. This message was relayed by imams at mosques during Friday prayers,” he said.

France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community.

The last several days have seen a wave of anti-American protests across the globe, sparked by the US-produced “Innocence of Muslims” film.

The film, excerpts of which were posted on the Internet, have offended many Muslims because of its insulting depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.

Islamic law prohibits any depiction of the prophet.

The protests, which started on Tuesday, have cost several lives and seen mobs burn US missions, schools and businesses as well as the embassies of some western countries.

Video transcript:

0:00 ... more demonstrators, Natalie [studio], just CRS [Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité] vehicles
0:04 protecting the street where the American embassy is situated. We are here several yards from
0:08 the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysées. The US embassy was clearly
0:12 the target of several dozen very irate demonstrators this
0:16 afternoon. The police depict them as possibly being close to Salafist
0:20 milieus, men, women, children, whom the forces of order
0:24 prevented from reaching the street where the embassy lies. Right at this moment, during the
0:28 dispersal, clashes erupted all the way to the interior ministry and the Palais de l’Elysée.
0:32 Two or three officers were slightly injured, around a hundred
0:36 persons were arrested and taken this evening to various Paris
0:40 police stations.

2 comments:

Pascal said...

It looks like all the media has dropped any pretext of professional journalism.

I've blogged twice about how the propaganda organs have been going all out to keep Obama from being held to account for his disastrous Middle East policies, which could not have gone much worse were this his intentions.

Of particular note, in the manner of France 24 which you've provide here, is the press' absolute certainty of the cause of the unrest, murder and mayhem "sparked by the US-produced 'Innocence of Muslims' film."

Whatever happened to the copy book rule that in a less blatantly partisan era would have demanded they publish it as "allegedly sparked" in every major publication -- except perhaps the Guardian?

These are not journalistic accountings; they are the noxious effluent of hacks.

Anonymous said...

At least the police are acting quickly, something not seen before. I did note that there was not a real apology to the police. That shows a lot about this protest.