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The streets of Frankfurt are empty - and remain empty: A rally against Mohammed cartoons has been banned
Photo:
Jan Huebner / Blatterspiel / imago images / Jan Huebner
Frankfurt am Main has banned a demonstration against Muhammad cartoons and the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo".
Security officer Markus Frank justified the measures by saying that the demonstration planned for this Saturday with up to 200 participants posed a threat to public order and security in Hesse's largest city.
"After the incredibly brutal Islamist attacks in France and Austria, Europe is mourning the relatives of the terrorist victims," declared the CDU city council.
"I find it unbearable that a demonstration against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is about to take place in our liberal and cosmopolitan city. That hurts the feelings of the relatives."
Of course, the right of assembly and freedom of expression are a great asset, said Frank.
But the responsibility for social peace and the common canon of values dictated that everything should be done not to allow a further escalation.
It is unclear whether the ban on demonstrations would legally stand up in the event of a lawsuit.
The Congregation Act states that outdoor gatherings can only be prohibited or dissolved if public safety is at risk.
Brutal murder because of Mohammed cartoons
A few days ago in France a teacher who had shown caricatures of Mohammed in class was brutally murdered.
Then there was a public exchange of blows between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
After Macron defended the Mohammed cartoons as freedom of expression, Erdoğans accused the French president of Islamophobia, doubted his mental health and called Macron, among other things, a case of illness that must be examined.
There were demonstrations with thousands of people in Islamic countries, and traders took French goods out of sale.
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hba / dpa