Many of our citizens have been threatened and driven from their overseas homes by vicious mobs shouting "Death to America".
Twenty years ago we were not pursued by mobs, tortured by police, or run out of our homes.
Alliance party councillor Maire Hendron said the scenes beamed around the world of mobs attacking the police and attempting to enter city hall were "disastrous" for Belfast's image.
"Across almost the entire Middle East, free thought can bring punishment or death, from governments or from street mobs or motivated individuals," he told students at the arts college, in a speech printed in full in Time magazine.
Through social media, organise "flash mobs", memes and other quirky ideas to gain attention and support.
"My house was physically attacked and I have to thank the police who protected me from the mobs," he said.
Being detained by police or threatened by mobs is a common experience for journalists – and especially photographers – when reporting near large crowds.
Mobs usually do when they find someone else to torment, or remember that it's lunch time.
They had no idea that we could reach them to a dead certainty at the distance of a mile… and out of one of these mobs of Blacks I selected a little girl with the intention of civilising".
Since Sunday night, the so-called "umbrella revolution" has turned the city's gleaming central business district into a virtual conflict zone, replete with shouting mobs, police in riot gear, and clouds of tear gas.
The channel was censured over four reports, including one featuring a pundit, Mark Sleboda, who described the Kiev regime as a "putsch government" that came to power with the help of violent mobs which included "a number of extremists".
