(Note: Unlike recent demonstrations against the Swiss (Swiss-Libyan dispute) and Egyptian embassies (in connection with Gaza), in which the regime mustered crowds that dutifully went through the paces, al-Megrahi's case is a genuinely emotive one for ordinary Libyans; demonstrations would likely be more energetic and harder for the GOL to control.
For those same two months, jihadists who think nothing of slaughtering innocents in the name of Allah have been nowhere in sight, as millions of ordinary Arabs launched demonstration after demonstration with a non-violent discipline worthy of Mohandas Gandhi.
"This is not an ordinary or everyday demonstration.
The Metropolitan police, who had been briefing reporters on the eve of the march to expect "nothing out of the ordinary" from the demonstration, had clearly been overwhelmed.
Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus and Central Asia expert at the Carnegie Centre in Moscow, called the Yerevan demonstrations "ordinary economic protests," but said Armenia's economic situation would likely remain bad.
They had observed a textbook ideal, a perfect demonstration of ordinary bird behavior.
PAGE A30 Op-Ed THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN The Pakistani government's sober response to the Mumbai terrorist attack is important, and the sincere expressions of outrage by individual Pakistanis are critical, but I am still hoping -- just once -- for that mass demonstration of "ordinary people" against the Mumbai bombers, not for my sake, not for India's sake, but for Pakistan's sake.
The game is an affirmation of the power of compassion and a demonstration that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.
It was this optimism, more than any coherent political demand or principle, that drove the protests of 1989, even inspiring ordinary workers to organize demonstrations.
They worked inside the terminals, while thousands of "ordinary" Americans engaged in demonstrations outside to show their opposition to Trump's travel ban and their support for those being detained inside.
