WORLD CAPITALS, January 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Demonstrators gathered outside French Embassies and diplomatic missions around the world to protest against an imminent ban on hijab in France's public schools Saturday, January 17.

Organizers had told IslamOnline.net that the protests would sweep 25 countries in the day, declared an international day against hijab ban. The mass protests drew thousands of people in a collective call for Paris to backtrack on the decision.

In London, around 2,000 people marched on the French Embassy in the central capital Saturday to protest against the controversial French plans.

After hearing speeches outlining the real motives of the ban on the Islamic wear and the necessity for Muslims in Europe to challenge the move, the protestors set off from Marble Arch in Central London towards the French Embassy in Knightsbridge, London.

A delegation was due later to deliver a letter to the French Ambassador, reminding France that insistence on going ahead with the ban will further alienate Muslims in Europe and widen the gap with the Muslim world.

The march, entitled "Hijab: Challenging Secularism with Islam", was jointly by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the Muslim Women Society (MWS).

A protest was also due to take place outside the French Embassy in Dublin against the decision by the French government.

The protests were apparently supported by government officials as British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien said the British government supported the right of all people to display religious symbols.

"In Britain we are comfortable with the expression of religion," O'Brien said in a statement.

The Arab and Muslim worlds were not away from the scene.

In Jordan, dozens of women protested outside the French Embassy in the capital Amman, holding up banners that read: "My hijab is my freedom" and "Banning hijab is a confusion of freedom".

The protestors further called for boycotting French products to force French President Jacques Chirac to retract his calls to enact a law on the ban.

"My hijab is my right and my freedom. It gives me the freedom to do what I want," read the slogans chanted at the gathering.

Mona Abu Dabbus, an activist in Jordan's Islamic Action Front, who took part in the protest, said that Jordanian women were protesting in solidarity with their sisters in France.

"France is a democratic country and democratic countries give the citizens the right to practice their religion," Dabbus told Reuters.

A banner read in French: "Hijab is a divine obligation and not a religious symbol", in reference to Chirac's calling hijab a symbol not a religious duty.

Many of France's five million Muslims see it as an attack on their religious and human rights, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

The Lebanese teenagers shouted slogans before dispersing peacefully

Tantawi came under fire for saying after talks with French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that France had the right to ban hijab on its soil because it was not a Muslim country.

Some 400 people, 300 of them women, also demonstrated in the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus to join the world protests against the move.

Protesters condemned the proposed ban as "undemocratic" and an "attack on the Muslim woman."

In Khartoum, hundreds of Sudanese Muslim women joined a rally at the French Embassy, where they delivered a protest letter to Chirac.

"The decision by the French government has angered the Muslim women of the world, particularly in Sudan, as we are aware that the French government is committed to the French revolution principles of freedom, brotherhood and equality," it said.

Citing international treaties including the U.N. human rights charter and the 1969 Vienna convention, the Sudanese protestors called on rights groups to pressure the French government.

The letter also urged Chirac's wife Bernadette to use her position as First Lady to "remove the injustice inflicted upon her sex, even on women who do not share her faith".

'Against Revolution'

"My hijab is my right and my freedom. It gives me the freedom to do what I want," said Jordanians

There have also been protests in Indonesia, Malaysia and other areas of the Islamic world against the French Government's policy.

In Cairo, Egypt, demonstrators were prevented from moving to the outside of the French Embassy or carrying placards.

"Where is the freedom guaranteed by the modern French revolution?," asked one of the protestors facing the threats of security forces.

Muslim Americans were also due to take to the streets against the ban, where Jewish and Sikh groups are to join the large protests, while sit-ins are planned outside the French Embassy in Washington and consulates across the country as well.

The demonstrations will be staged in cities hosting French diplomatic missions, namely, Washington, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, San Francisco and New York city, said Ismail Kamal, of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of the U.S. and Canada has told IOL.

The United Muslim Students Association (UMSA) in Montreal will be picketing outside the offices of the French Consulate at 1 Place Ville Marie (René-Lévesque/ Université) at 12 pm.

They will be handing out green ribbons, in solidarity with the Muslims of France, the group said in a press release.

'Unprecedented' French Fury

In France itself, More than 20,000 French people were scheduled in protests for Saturday against the law in Paris and other cities, French security sources told IOL.

France's Muslims Party - the main group behind the campaign that also includes call-in and letter-writing protests - said the turnout could be much higher, putting the number at 50,000.

The demonstrations in France were set to go ahead under close police surveillance after the government warned Friday of attempts to stir up radical opposition to the ban.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said protests would not be a positive contribution to the debate over the law.

"If there is a protest one day, there will be a counter-protest the next," he said Friday.

Several hundred had already gathered in the center of the French capital by early afternoon.

Some civil rights groups were to show up against the ban, which they say will be seen as targeting a community that already feels rejected by mainstream society.

Protests have taken place elsewhere, too. Earlier this month, 700 Muslims marched through the Danish capital of Copenhagen to protest the proposed law.

The Catholic church has also opposed the law, with Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger saying it was encouraging an aggressive anti-religious trend.

"This clumsy law risks reopening ... a religious war," he said.

• Protests In Pictures