PARIS—More than a million people and dozens of world leaders marched through Paris on Sunday in a historic display of global defiance against extremism after jihadist attacks that had left 17 dead.
In an unprecedented show of unity, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority were among the world leaders attending the rally to honor the victims of three days of bloodshed that included Jews and a Muslim police officer among the dead.
Under clear blue skies, emotions were already running high in the shell-shocked City of Light, as people from all walks of life began to rally under the banner of freedom of speech and liberty.
“I want to show that we’re not scared of the extremists. I want to defend freedom of expression,” said 70-year-old Jacqueline Saad-Rouana.
Another woman in her 50s who declined to be named said she was going to the march as it is “the way to show that I live in a country where everyone has their place.”
The families of those who died in the three blood-soaked days that shook France to its core rubbed shoulders with royalty and heads of state within an iron ring of security.
The rally, which was led by relatives, began at 3 p.m. local time (10 p.m. in Manila) at the Place de République.
Defenses were beefed up in a jittery Paris still reeling from the Islamist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket, with thousands of extra troops and police deployed to guard the march and snipers positioned along the route.
“I have no doubt that millions of citizens will come to express their love of liberty, their love of fraternity,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told an emotional rally on Saturday near where a gunman killed four hostages at the supermarket.
“We are all Charlie, we are all police, we are all Jews of France,” he declared on Saturday, referring to the victims that included employees at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, shoppers at a kosher grocery and two police officers.
Global rallying point
In a foretaste of the demonstration, more than 700,000 people poured onto the streets of Paris, Toulouse, Nice and other cities across France on Saturday, many carrying banners reading “je suis charlie” (I am Charlie), the tribute to Charlie Hebdo that has been the global rallying point in the wake of the slaughter.
SOLIDARITY A sign on the Arc de Triomphe reads “Paris is Charlie” in solidarity with the victims of the shooting at the newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. AP
Similar rallies and marches were also held in places as far away Madagascar, Israel, Mongolia, New York and Central African Republic.
Many brandished pens to symbolize freedom of expression after Charlie Hebdo was targeted for its cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.
“The real battle is to defend freedom of thought,” 40-year-old Yamina, tears in her eyes, said at a rally in the southern city of Marseille.
Dignitaries
Along with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, the king and queen of Jordan attended the rally together with a host of top European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmut Dovutogly.
US President Barack Obama was represented by Attorney General Eric Holder, who also took part in Sunday’s emergency meeting of interior ministers to discuss the threats posed by Islamic extremism.
Speaking on a visit to India, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “We stand together this morning with the people of France. We stand together not just in anger and outrage but in solidarity and commitment in confronting extremists.”
Possible new attacks
French President François Hollande, who led the tributes to the victims, has warned his shell-shocked country not to drop its guard in the face of possible new attacks.
The three-day rampage by three gunmen, who claimed to be members of the al-Qaida and Islamic State extremist groups, was followed by a chilling new threat from the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
AQAP’s top official Harith al-Nadhari warned France to “stop your aggression against the Muslims” or face further attacks, in comments released by the SITE monitoring group.
German newspaper Bild said the bloodshed in France could signal the start of a wave of attacks in Europe, citing communications by Islamic State leaders intercepted by US intelligence.
It said the US National Security Agency had intercepted communications in which leaders of the jihadist group announced the next wave of attacks, the mass circulation daily said in its Sunday edition, citing unnamed sources in the US intelligence services.
Early Sunday, a German newspaper in the northern port city of Hamburg that reprinted Mohammed cartoons from Charlie Hebdo was the target of an arson attack. No one was hurt.
3 days of terror
France’s three days of terror started on Wednesday when two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi, burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices and sprayed bullets into the editorial meeting, killing some of France’s best-known cartoonists.
They then slaughtered a Muslim policeman in cold blood as he lay helpless on the ground before fleeing, sparking a manhunt that lasted more than 48 hours.
A day later, a third gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, shot dead a policewoman in a southern suburb of Paris.
The massive manhunt for the two brothers developed into a car chase on Friday and a tense standoff as they took one person hostage in a printing firm northeast of Paris.
With the eyes of the world trained on the printing company in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele and the siege of the Kouachi brothers, Coulibaly stormed into a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris and took terrified shoppers hostage.
The twin hostage dramas came to a dramatic end as the brothers charged out of their building all guns blazing before being cut down by elite commandos.
Moments later, security forces stormed the kosher supermarket, killing Coulibaly but making the grisly discovery that four innocent Jewish people had died during the hostage-taking.
The attacks were France’s bloodiest for more than half a century, with questions mounting about how the gunmen could have slipped through the net of intelligence services. Valls admitted there had been “clear failings” in intelligence.
Condemned by kin
Coulibaly’s mother and sisters on Saturday condemned his actions.
“We absolutely do not share these extreme ideas. We hope there will not be any confusion between these odious acts and the Muslim religion,” they wrote in a statement.
“I hope that at the end of the day everyone is united. Everyone, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists,” said Zakaria Moumni, who was at the Place de République early Sunday. “We are humans first of all. And nobody deserves to be murdered like that. Nobody.”
It was France’s deadliest terrorist attack in decades, and the country remains on high alert while investigators determine whether the attackers were part of a larger extremist network. More than 2,000 police are being deployed on Sunday to protect the crowds, in addition to the tens of thousands already guarding synagogues, mosques, schools and other sites around France.
“It’s not the end for us, it’s not the end,” said Christophe Crepin, spokesman for the French police union. “I think we have turned a page, a bit like before Sept. 11 and after Sept. 11.”
RELATED STORIES
Unity and defiance: Thousands converge on Paris in rally
World leaders converge on Paris, with crowd of thousands
People join rallies worldwide to honor Paris victims