No respect: Protesters wave placards and take photos from Field Marshal Montgomery’s statue
Thousands of British Muslims gathered outside Downing Street today to protest against Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
A petition signed by 100,000 British Muslims was handed to No 10 after a rally was held on Whitehall
Despite the rally passing off peacefully with no arrests, the banners carried a thinly veiled threat of violence towards those who continued to exercise free speech. Leaders of the protest also sparked anger by claiming the ‘extremist’ cartoonists massacred in Paris for depicting the Prophet Mohammed were as bad as the jihadis who gunned them down in cold blood.
In a gathering outside Downing Street, the hardline Muslim Action Forum berated ‘uncivilised expressionists’ who drew satirical images of the prophet for ‘sowing the seeds of hatred’ – effectively blaming the victims for their own murders.
Muslims gathered outside the gates to No 10 to protest against ‘offensive’ caricatures in Charlie Hebdo and other Western publications. Protesters gathered yards from the Cenotaph which commemorates those who gave their lives in wartime for freedom. Children were among the crowd which waved placards emblazoned with the words Charlie And The Abuse Factory, and Learn Some Manners.
The rally, which blocked off half of Whitehall, was staged a month after two AK-47-wielding terrorists attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices, killing 12 and wounding 11 in revenge for printing cartoons of the prophet – deemed blasphemous in the Muslim world.
But speakers at the protest provoked anger by appearing to equate in seriousness the drawing of the cartoons with the murders that followed. Shaykh Tauqir Ishaq, a Muslim Action Forum spokesman, said: ‘Perpetual mistakes by extremists, either by cold-blooded killers or uncivilised expressionists, cannot be the way forward for a civilised society.
‘The peace-loving majority of people must become vociferous in promoting global civility and responsible debate. At this time of heightened tension and emotion, it is crucial that both sides show restraint to prevent further incidents of this nature occurring.’ ……..
See full story on dailymail.co.uk
Photo : Lee Thomas, Daniel Leal