Jordan Times: AMMAN/PARIS — Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Sunday participated in a march “of defiance and sorrow” in Paris to pay tribute to victims of terrorism in France.

Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania take part in a rally of defiance and sorrow to honour the 17 victims of three days of bloodshed in Paris that left France on alert for more violence in Paris on Sunday (Reuters photo)

King, Queen take part in Paris ‘defiance and sorrow march’

"... In a Facebook post, Queen Rania wrote that she was joining the King ”to stand in solidarity with the people of France in their darkest hour... To stand in unity against extremism in all its forms and to stand up for our cherished faith, Islam. And so that the lasting image of these terrible events is an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and support between people of all faiths and cultures.”

As a Muslim, she added, “it pains me when someone derides Islam and my religious beliefs. It also pains me when someone derides other religions and other people’s religious beliefs. But what offends me more, much more, are the actions of the criminals who, this week, dared to use Islam to justify the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians. This is not about Islam or being offended by Charlie Hebdo magazine. This is about a handful of extremists who wanted to slaughter people for any reason and at any cost”. 

Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance and mercy, the Queen wrote. “It is a source of comfort and strength for more than 1.6 billion Muslims — the same people who are shocked, saddened and appalled by the events in Paris this week”..."

Worldwide marches in solidarity with France... "Live Together Free, Equal, and United""

Palestinian security forces wave Palestinian and French flags in solidarity with French people, denouncing terrorism, as they join a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

French residents in Japan, their family and Japanese hold "Je suis Charlie, or I am Charlie" signs as they attend a special memorial gathering under a French national flag tied with a black ribbon at the French Institute in Tokyo Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015 in support of the victims who were shot by terrorists at the Charlie Hebdo satirical journal in Paris last week. More than 200 people gathered to decry the terrorism in which 17 people and three al-Qaida-inspired gunmen were killed over three days of bloodshed at the offices of the newspaper, a kosher supermarket and other sites around Paris. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings that killed 12 people in Paris on Wednesday, more than a hundred people, many with ties to France, gathered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. bringing their own artwork and chanting ‘Je Suis Charlie' meaning 'I am Charlie.'

A man holds a giant pencil as he takes part in a Hundreds of thousands of French citizens solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)

A protester holds up a pen as thousands of Montrealers march to the French Consulate, in tribute to the victims of the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, in downtown Montreal, January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims, including journalists and policemen, following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi (CANADA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW POLITICS)

NAR010. Munich (Germany), 11/01/2015.- A pen with the message 'Je suis Charlie' (I am Charlie) is held in front of a french flag during soft snowfall in Munich, Germany, 11 January 2015. According to police statements, about 3000 people gathered to commemorate the victims of an attack on the French satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo'. Three days of terror that ended on 10 January saw 17 people killed in attacks that began with gunmen invading French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and continued with the shooting of a policewoman and the siege of a Jewish supermarket. (Atentado, Francia, Alemania) EFE/EPA/NICOLAS ARMER

A participant holds up a poster reading 'Berlin ist Charlie' during a rally in tribute to the 17 people killed in the terror attacks in France at the Pariser Platz in Berlin on January 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/John MacDougall)

A French-Israeli dual national lights a candle, around the names of French Jews killed in an attack on a supermarket in Paris, during a remembrance ceremony in the coastal city of Netanya on January 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

A man holds a placard made using pencils reading "I Am Charlie" during a show of solidarity outside the French Institute in Barcelona on January 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Josep Lago)

Turkish journalists and French people hold pencils on Istiklal avenue during a rally organised by Turkish journalists for Paris attacks on Istiklal avenue on January 11, 2015, in Istanbul (AFP Photo/Bulent Kilic)

Hundreds of thousands of French citizens take part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

Two women embrace under a banner that reads, "Not Islamophobia and jihadism" during a rally by members of the Muslim community of Madrid outside Madrid's Atocha train station, January 11, 2015, in solidarity with the victims of a shooting by gunmen at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and against Islamophobia. (REUTERS/Juan Medina)

A girl holds up a sign during a rally by members of the Muslim community of Madrid outside Madrid's Atocha train station, January 11, 2015, in solidarity with the victims of a shooting by gunmen at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and against Islamophobia. The words on the birds read, "Peace, Respect, Love, Tolerance and Coexistence". (REUTERS/Juan Medina)

Israelis, mostly French Jews, hold signs that read, "I am Charlie," "Israel is Charlie" and "I am a Jew of France" during a gathering in the municipality in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bodies of French Jews killed in a hostage standoff in a Paris grocery store will be buried in Israel. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

People holding a poster reading "Quick more democracy everywhere against barbarism" take part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal)

Egyptian journalists hold pens in a show of solidarity with the victims of Wednesday's attack in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, at the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. The attack on the French satirical newspaper has caused grief and soul-searching around the world, and exposed the risks humorists can run in an era of instant global communications and starkly opposed ideologies. Despite the show of solidarity, some fear the violence will lead to self-censorship by artists and publishers. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. Image via Facebook....Saudi Arabia is remaining silent in the face of global outrage at the public flogging of the jailed blogger Raif Badawi, who received the first 50 of 1,000 lashes on Friday, part of his punishment for running a liberal website devoted to freedom of speech in the conservative kingdom.
Anger at the flogging – carried out as the world watched the bloody denouement of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket jihadi killings in Paris – focused on a country that is a strategic ally, oil supplier and lucrative market for the US, Britain and other western countries but does not tolerate criticism at home.
Badawi was shown on a YouTube video being beaten in a square outside a mosque in Jeddah.

Supporters fear Saudi blogger will not survive weekly public flogging

Terad Badawi holds a picture of his father, Raif Badawi. Raif Badawi, a blogger and activist who has a wife and three children in Sherbrooke, underwent the first round of 50 lashes in public after morning prayers Friday, January 9, 2014, in Saudi Arabia, human rights group Amnesty International said. Badawi was arrested in 2012.
 In addition to his sentence of 1,000 lashes in public and 10 years in prison, Badawi was fined 1 million Saudi riyals (about $315,000 Canadian) and banned from travelling outside Saudi Arabia for 10 years after his release.

 A man holds up a giant pencil during a march for the victims of the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, in Brussels January 11, 2015. (REUTERS/Francois Lenoir)

People watch from their roof-top apartment as some thousands of people gather at Republique square in Paris, France, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. Thousands of people began filling Franceâs iconic Republique plaza, and world leaders converged on Paris in a rally of defiance and sorrow on Sunday to honor the 17 victims of three days of bloodshed that left France on alert for more violence. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) 

People gather at Place de la Nation during a rally in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands gathered Sunday throughout Paris and cities around the world, to show unity and defiance in the face of terrorism that killed 17 people in Franceâs bleakest moment in half a century. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French President Francois Hollande is surrounded by head of states including (first row,LtoR) European Commission President European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as they attend the solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. (REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer)

#JeSuixAhmed

#JeSuisAhmed: a crucial message that everyone should hear

A memorial to Ahmed Merabet, one of two police officers killed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre ( Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

 The hashtag is also a reminder that the victims of Islamist terrorists are primarily Muslim

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Terrorist acts not cartoons provoke Islamophobia.... "It is not obnoxious and freewheeling satire but terrorist atrocities that really and devastatingly promote Islamophobia in France and around the world." Hussein Ibish, PhD
Senior Fellow
ATFP
http://www.americantaskforce.org/

#JeSuisCharlie

From Seattle Sketcher Gabriel Campanario: Today was a sad day with senseless loss of life in Paris, where 12 people were murdered by gun-toting terrorists in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Read more: http://seati.ms/1xRizHk
More Seattle Sketcher: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seattlesketcher/






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STAY CONNECTED... Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to: Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries