Dusseldorf Islamic Demonstration against cartoon

While I intended to spend all of Saturday touring around Dusseldorf, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a Muslim demonstration against the infamous cartoon. I had hoped to make it to the planned demonstration in London on that same day but was not able to change my flight. I wanted to do my first real photojournalism/documentary photography. While I didn't have my new, proper camera, my digital snapshot camera sufficed. About the demonstration...I was quite impressed with the quality of its organization. I found out from one reporter that I talked with that the guy who organized it organizes demonstrations quite frequently and obviously knows what he's doing. Many efforts were taken to ensure that the demonstration remained peacefully and the demonstrators did not build themselves into a frenzy, not that it seemed they desired to get to that state. Often I saw smiling and laughing among them. Certain people involved in the demonstration were designated as "crowd control". They joined hands together to form a chain enclosing the demonstrators to ensure the crowd moved in a controlled manner. They also helped to quiet the crowd when leaders needed to speak. At one point, some protesters to the demonstration with a sign that read, "We demonstrate for free speach and the right to blasephemy" provoke the Muslim demonstrators and this was the one time where the crowd got excited and had to be controlled and brought back together after going after the sign holders. The police overtook the sign holders to reduce the provocation and left the demonstration organizers to tame the Muslim demonstrators. It was all quite impressive and I happened to be right there when it all happened. I stepped back out of the way to let what was to ensue ensue and not get caught in the middle of it. I must say, it was an exciting moment. The rest of the demonstration went off without a hitch. It ended close to the Danish Consulate where someone gave a speech. I got the gist of it from the reporter I talked with earlier...Muslim discrimination and peaceful response. It was intersting to note that while I expected the women to be grouped behind the men, I didn't expect that they would maintain about a 6-foot gap between the group of men in front and the group of women in back. Oh, I was walking along the group outside of the human chain and at one point the chain disbanded and I somehow ended up walking among the men. By the time I realized this, there was a nice empty space around me. Just as I'm realizing this, a female reporter finds herself in the same situation right with me. As we are on a baracade the police have put up, we had to walk all the way through the crowd of men to get out of it. As I hoped to be a documenter and not interject myself into the situation, I was disappointed in myself for letting it happen. I will end this by saying that it is sad to see that the only Muslim demonstrations that make international news are the violent ones and not the ones that were so intentionally meant and accomplished peacefully!