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Paris rally leads millions worldwide to demonstrate for unity against terrorism

 
From left, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, France’s President Francois Hollande, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas march during a rally in Paris on Sunday. The  rally was the center of worldwide demonstrations for defiance of terrorism and sorrow for the 17 victims of three days of bloodshed and fear in France.
From left, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, France’s President Francois Hollande, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas march during a rally in Paris on Sunday. The rally was the center of worldwide demonstrations for defiance of terrorism and sorrow for the 17 victims of three days of bloodshed and fear in France.
Published Jan. 12, 2015

PARIS

An extraordinary chain of 1.5 million people, led by a group of world leaders linking arms, marched down Paris' Boulevard Voltaire in a show of force Sunday meant to illustrate the power of unity and freedom of expression over the sting of fanaticism and terror.

After a barrage of violence that traumatized France and left 17 victims dead, the boulevards of Paris produced a striking counter image: French President François Hollande arm in arm with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and flanked by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and a host of European and African leaders. The United States was represented by Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to France.

An estimated 4 million people nationwide — over a third of them in Paris — mobilized, with sister demonstrations of support erupting from Ramallah, Israel, to Sydney, Australia, to Washington. "Paris is the capital of the world today," Hollande said.

Yet the show of solidarity could not entirely dispel the unease that has followed the attacks.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in Paris for a security conference, said on CBS's Face the Nation that the prospect of "lone wolf" terrorist attacks in the United States "frankly, keeps me up at night."

Israeli leaders urged European Jews to move to Israel to escape anti-Semitism.

But out on the streets of Paris, Christians, atheists, Jews and Muslims stood side by side, sending up shouts of "Charlie, Charlie, freedom of speech!"— a reference to Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper whose offices were attacked by Islamist extremists last week, starting off three days of terror.

Crushing throngs filled the streets with the red, white and blue of the French flag as tearful family members of the fallen walked in a place of honor on a symbolic 2.1-mile path from the Place de la Republique to the Place de la Nation. A group of Muslims threw white roses from the sidewalks. The monumental robes of a giant Marianne, the symbol of France and personification of liberty and reason, flowed through the crowd. Authorities called it the largest mass rally in French history.

Participants purposely marched down the Boulevard Voltaire, the nom de plume of the French Enlightenment philosopher who advocated religious tolerance and freedom of expression. It was, many here said, a push back against religious extremism in a nation that puts secularism first.

"We are here to show that we are not afraid, that we are all French and that we will not be defeated by fear," said Patrick Bidegaray, a 32-year-old corporate consultant and self-described atheist who attended the march with nine friends, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

Yet even as the marchers spoke of unity, there was also trepidation over a toxic combination of ills laid bare by the attacks, including the increasing specter of homegrown extremism and the growing arm of the militant group calling itself the Islamic State.

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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as the group is also known, championed a video that emerged on Sunday in which one of the assailants — Amedy Coulibaly, a 32-year-old of Malian descent — pledges allegiance to the group.

Coulibaly, the only son of 10 children and a petty thief once charged with drug trafficking, shot a police officer on Thursday before taking hostages in a kosher market on Friday and killing four before being killed in a police raid. Police killed the two other attackers — brothers Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi — on Friday outside a printing plant 26 miles north of Paris where they had made a last stand.

The three days of terror began Wednesday when the Kouachis stormed the Charlie Hebdo newsroom, killing 12 people, including two police officers. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen said it directed the attack to avenge the honor of the prophet Mohammed, a frequent target of the satirical weekly's barbs. Charlie Hebdo also assails Christianity and Judaism, as well as officialdom of all stripes, with its brand of sometimes crude satire.

Five people held in connection with the attacks were freed Saturday, leaving no one in custody, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. Coulibaly's girlfriend, last seen near the Turkish-Syrian border, is still being sought.

Friday's attack on the kosher market sent tremors that continue to reverberate through France's half-million-strong Jewish community. Synagogues have been receiving round-the-clock police protection amid fears of another anti-Semitic strike.

"We've been attacked twice — first as Jews, and second as citizens of France," said Aurelien Kalmucki, 34, who proudly waved a blue-and-white Israeli flag amid a sea of French tri-colors.

At Paris' Grand Synagogue, 17 candles were lit for the 17 victims. "Why do we always have to be united by tears?" said the Great Rabbi of France, Haim Korsa.

France's Muslims, too, have been fearful that last week's violence will only trigger an escalation, with their community ultimately paying the price for the crimes of an extremist few.

Marchers on Sunday said that although all of Paris was represented on the streets, the crowd seemed more heavily white than the city as a whole, and some wondered why France's 5 million Muslim citizens might have been underrepresented.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.