Posted on 02/28/2006 2:35:05 AM PST by beaversmom
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Paris on Sunday to protest anti-Semitism and racism after the torture and killing of a young Jewish man.
Organizers had asked for a silent vigil, but some protesters chanted "Justice for Ilan" or carried banners with slogans such as "No to a racist France" or "Ilan tortured, France wounded." Marchers in Paris on Feb. 26, 2006, protest the killing of Ilan Halimi. The yellow signs say: "Don't touch my friend". (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old cellphone salesman, was abducted on Jan. 21 by members of a gang who held him hostage in a Paris suburb for three weeks while demanding ransoms from his family.
He died en route to hospital on Feb. 13 after he was found lying beside some train tracks, naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks.
Halimi's slaying was requalified as a hate crime after investigators found out the gang members targeted him because he was Jewish and they believed the anti-Semitic stereotype that all Jews are rich.
French officials allege the gang has been operating an extortion ring for several years, often targeting Jews. They accuse gang members of trying to abduct six other people since December, four of them Jewish.
The anti-Semitic overtones stunned France's Jewish community of 500,000, many of whom joined the march in Paris or smaller marches in Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux on Sunday.
Police estimated that about 33,000 people marched in Paris, while organizers said the crowd included as many as 200,000.
It included politicians of all stripes – including several cabinet ministers and former prime minister Lionel Jospin – as well as prominent Jewish and Catholic religious leaders.
"Today, we must march, we must stand up, to say that in France each of us has the right to live in dignity whatever his God, his religion, the colour of his skin," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told demonstrators.
One of the Jewish protesters, Olivier Barbe, carried a handmade placard reading "If only I were rich!"
"Ilan's murder was based on anti-Semitic prejudice," Barbe told CBC News in French.
"Because he was Jewish, his captors assumed he was rich. And that wasn't the case at all. It's completely wrong. You can be Jewish and on welfare. That's my case."
Fourteen people have been placed under judicial investigation in relation with Halimi's slaying.
The man accused of being the gang's ringleader fled to Ivory Coast about a week before the march. He was caught and is awaiting extradition to France.
Islam is evil.
Yes, MarMema posted about 10 different links. Don't know how I missed all of those over the past few days.
No mention that "the gang" was Muslim. Or that Muslim neighbors were invited over to help torture "the Jew".
Thanks for your continuously updated link.
But it's a religion of PEACE!
You mean the Archbishop of Canterbury didn't issue a Fatwa?
Let me fix that... it's a religion of PEACE! piece(s)...
( Infidel pieces, Joow! pieces, blasphemer pieces, hey, it's all alike- parts is parts. )
No mention of the moderate Muslims that we keep hearing about.
No, they were probably those "raging Baptists rioters."
Actually I missed all but two of them myself. And anyway it's important for this to get lots of airtime, imo.
Wow! Nice friend to have. Poverty must have caused the poor young Muslim to flip out (sarcasm). We just aren't hearing about these murders like we should--but if it had been the other way around--a Jew or American killing a Muslim they would still be talking about it.
Gang? The same gang who tried to destroy France, burning cars, businesses, etc. in the weeks around Christmas. Need any more than this? They don't need a reason, just a likely victim.
US Jews here on the left better wake up....this is where Islam wants to take you.
this is all our future if Islam continues to roll....they only dislike goyim like me slightly less
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.