For several months, there have been protests and marches across Germany against the influx of Muslims. With the biggest rally yet occouring in Dresden just last month. But recently, there has been a new movement on the scene. This one supports the increase of refugees from Islamic countries in the middle east.
These supporters and opponents of a group campaigning against what it sees as the “Islamisation” of Europe are holding rival rallies across Germany. There have been weekly protests by the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) since October
A record 17,500 people turned out at one rally in Dresden last month.
But counter demonstrations have sprung up and Pegida has been condemned by senior German politicians. Thousands of people were expected to march in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and Stuttgart. In Cologne, the authorities plan to switch the lights off at the city’s cathedral as a way of telling Pegida supporters they are supporting their opponents.
Counter-protests have been opposing the group
“We don’t think of it as a protest, but we would like to make the many conservative Christians [who support Pegida] think about what they are doing,” the dean of the cathedral, Norbert Feldhoff, told the BBC. German Chancellor Liberal leader Angela Merkel attacked Pegida in her New Year speech, saying its leaders have “prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts”.
The sign held by this Berlin man reads “No to Islamisation of Europe!”
But despite all this negative attention, Pegida is gaining ground among the general population. A poll of just over 1,000 people carried out by Germany’s Stern magazine found one in eight Germans would join an anti-Islam march if Pegida organized one near their home. This number is up by almost 2 percent since last summer.
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