Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité? by Les May

THERE’s a line in the James Stewart film ‘The Dynamite Man from Glory Jail’ which always comes to mind whenever I hear that the leader of some religion based political party or other is making demands; ‘God uses some people and some people use God’. If you think we have problems in the UK with a few mediaeval minded God botherers outside a school, spare a thought for Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan.

Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, variously described as ‘hardline’ and ‘far right’, blocked major transport routes demanding the release of their leader Saad Rizvi who had been arrested on Monday after he gave the government an ultimatum to send the French ambassador home or face protests culminating in a march on the capital on 20 April. One protester and a police officer who was beaten by angry crowds have died.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have been enraged by France's Emmanuel Macron defending his country’s freedom of speech laws after the killing of a teacher who had shown images of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.

Khan’s problem is that last November he appears to have tried to buy off demonstrators who had organised anti-France protests demanding a boycott of French goods and the severing of diplomatic ties.

At least that is how the protesters see things, though at the time a senior government official is reported to have told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that the "government has no intention of cutting diplomatic ties with any country" and that the situation had been 'handled accordingly' to ensure the protesters left peacefully. If true this suggests that Khan’s government may have told a ‘porky pie’ to get themselves out of a hole and now it has come back to bite them.

In this country we hear a great deal about so called ‘Islamophobia’. A phobia is essentially an irrational fear of something, so Islamophobia is characterised by a wholly irrational fear of Islam. But when we look at what is happening in Pakistan and the consequences of the demands being made by those outside a school in Batley, should we not ask ourselves if in some cases these fears really are wholly irrational?

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Quarter of a million Yellow Vest protesters take to streets

A #GiletsJaunes protestor in #Paris lost 5 teeth and fractured his jaw when a police flash ball hit his face point blank in the #ActeIX protest.

Quarter of a million Yellow Vest protestors hit streets

Police in the capital used water cannon and tear gas as scuffles broke out at the Arc de Triomphe, on the ninth consecutive weekend of protests.

Some 84,000 demonstrators were recorded nationwide, an increase compared with last week, official figures show.

The nationwide protests were initially triggered by the rising price of fuel.

They have since widened to include anger at the cost of living, with a wide-ranging list of other demands.

• Who are the 'gilets jaunes'?
• Macron concessions divide protest leaders

Thousands of officers were deployed across Paris, which has previously seen street clashes and vandalism, to tackle the protesters, and parts of the city centre were blocked off by riot police.

Some 8,000 demonstrators were on the streets - more than in the past two weekends, when authorities counted just 3,500 people on 5 January and 800 on 29 December, according to interior ministry figures.

Some 156 protesters were arrested, and as of 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT), 108 remained in custody, police said.

By nightfall, there had not been the looting or burning of cars as seen in previous weeks.

There were also thousands of protesters in the cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse in southern France as well as Strasbourg in the east and the central city of Bourges, the site of another major rally, where more than 6,000 people took to the streets.

Nationwide, 244 people were arrested, of which 201 remained in custody, police said.

Some 80,000 police officers were deployed nationwide to face the protesters.

• Outcry over fundraising for protest boxer
• Boxer surrenders after riot police clash in Paris
• The full story of the yellow vests

French President Emmanuel Macron has said a national debate is due to kick off on 15 January in response to weeks of protests by the "gilets jaunes" - so-called because of the high-visibility jackets they wear.

It will be held publicly in town halls across France and on the internet, and will focus on four themes: taxes, green energy, institutional reform and citizenship.

Source: BBC News 12 January 2019