A group of people thew stones and harassed locals who went to see the arrival of the Amal refugee doll in the city of Larissa, central Greece, on Tuesday. Other protesters held icons and religious symbols to “exorcise” the big little doll symbolizing refugee children and their plight.
Protesters shouted “Shame” as the 3.5-meter-high wooden doll walked along the riverside where the event was taking place.
Children that were there with their parents to offer symbolic gifts to Amal were panicked as protesters threw items at the doll, local media larissanet reported.
Police had to intervene to restore the order and the event organized by the municipality ended earlier than scheduled.
With religious symbols against Amal that represents a 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl.
The giant puppet Little Amal, which is on a 5,000-mile journey from Turkey to Britain to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees and the stories of the millions of youngsters traveling alone.
The wooden doll artwork created by Handspring Puppet Company passes through several cities in Greece and has for the most part been warmly embraced since it arrived from Turkey last month.
Local reports referred to what they described as xenophobic responses of those opposed to the puppet passing through their city.
After Greece, Little Amal will go to Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and finally the UK where her journey will end in Manchester on November 3.
I was not surprised at all reading this ‘news’. By now I have lived 15 years in Greece and although the Greeks themselves pretend that they are the most foreigner loving (xenofilia) nation in Europe, I have never experienced so much xenophobic thinking and acting, on many levels of society. Of course, when it is about tourists, the Greeks love those foreign visitors (read: their money) to bits, but for everything that goes wrong (burglary, arsony, economy, you name it) the accusing fingers always point first to Albanians, jews, Turks, refugees and muslms or – if there is nobody else left to blame – the rest of Europe…. Plato would have said: “γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (know thyself).
Those who are so in favor of receiving refugees should at least take one of them into his or her own house or personally support one of them. Either that or shut up!
how do you know they don’t?
Some people do but the ones who shouted it (famous TV people) didn’t.
Mass movement of other cultures to native cultures never brought joy and happiness. Islam in specific does not think highly of western culture but come anyway. And there are no success stories about Islam mixing in the west, high unemployed and crime rate. This is no xenophobic chatter but reality. There is nothing to gain, there is only to lose.
Every year we come to Greece on holiday and we love it. We find the Greek friendly but overall not that very inviting or welcoming. It depends where you go. I guess it is because they are used to tourists but overall Greece is still very much a conservative society. It is better with the younger generation but alas that generation is leaving in droves.
Oh the irony of people carrying icons and crosses but not understanding or applying the message that Jesus brought: “What you have done to the least of me, you have done to me”.
Turkey has 5 million refugees, but Amal was very much welcome in Turkey. Very primitive to fight with a puppet.