A peaceful Paris protest

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ollowing a tragic week for France, millions of people from all over the world gathered in the capital of the country as a demonstration of solidarity, respect, and mourning for those killed in the shootings at Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket.

We spoke to Angela Hopps, an education project manager for the EFA (Education Funding Agency), who went to the demonstration yesterday. She was amazed by the still atmosphere and the complete sense of calm that was representative of the whole day. While she pointed out that it was unbelievably busy, telling me that when she left it took half an hour of walking before the densely-packed crowds started to thin out, the general feeling among the crowd was “calm, relaxed, thoughtful”.

There were Jews, Muslims, Christians and Atheists alike in the one to two million-strong crowd that amassed in the blood-stained streets of Paris

She noted that despite the vastness of the crowd, the city was surprisingly quiet, saying “occasionally there were bursts of La Marseillaise, and people sometimes shouting “Je suis Charlie”, but mostly it was just quiet.”

photo: Angela Hopps

Angela mentioned meeting a French couple who asked her where she had come from, and when she told them she had come from England to support the French in their demonstration of solidarity, the couple were extremely moved. It seems that there was an indomitable unity between cultures, religions and nationalities yesterday, as Angela pointed out that there were Jews, Muslims, Christians and Atheists alike in the one to two million-strong crowd that amassed in the blood-stained streets of Paris.

We can only hope that this peaceful Paris protest is representative of the future unity of the world in the face of such atrocities.

photo: Angela Hopps