Tag: Germany

Germany: Anti-Islamists defy Merkel in Dresden, but the rest of Germany appears to say: Bring in MORE Muslims, we love them

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The reports out of Germany (the few I’ve looked at) about yesterday’s protests across the country are a bit fuzzy, however the western media sure loved the fact that the Catholics of Cologne (are there many left?), in turning off the Cathedral lights, were sending a message of love and peace to their Muslim immigrants.

Dresden anti-Islam demonstrators yesterday (Reuters photo) and another news account, this time from AFP. http://www.wort.lu/en/international/dresden-german-anti-migrant-march-draws-highest-turnout-54ab86b30c88b46a8ce4ff61

Here is one report about Dresden where 18,000 reportedly show up in opposition to more Muslim immigration to Germany.  You know it is so interesting, this Bloomberg story has changed its headline since last night!  Today it is: Germans Protest Anti-Islamist Rally as Landmarks Go Dark.

And last night it was: Merkel rebuffed by record attendance at anti-islamist rally. I’m guessing Bloomberg said, oopsy! we aren’t in line with our media brethren!

No wonder it’s so hard to figure out what is going on—the Leftist media is making sure we get only their version of the news!  Bloomberg did tell us this:

About 18,000 people marched through Dresden yesterday night in the latest weekly rally backed by organizers who call themselves Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or Pegida. The group says it’s for stricter immigration and asylum laws, protecting“western culture” and avoiding “parallel societies” of Muslims in Germany.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Welle wants us to get the message that Germans in Cologne and Berlin love Muslim immigration!

Anti-Islamist ‘Pegida’ supporters have had to cancel their appearance in Cologne, where thousands of demonstrators showed solidarity with migrants.

Overwhelming support for immigrants and asylum seekers in Cologne led to the Pegida demonstrators cancelling their appearance. Citizens in Cologne shouted out in jubilation, the sole goal of their demonstration being to prevent the Kögida- the name of the anti-Islam movement in Cologne- from marching in their city. [Silencing speech—the sole goal!–ed]

Around 5,000 protesters gathered in a Berlin neighborhood, calling for more tolerance. Berlin’s integration leder Dilek Kolat of the Social Democrats called the Pegida- an acronym for Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West- “an attack on peaceful co-existence in our society.”

Good luck with that “peaceful co-existence!”

If we find more definitive news in the days ahead about what happened, we’ll link it here.

See our extensive archive on Germany and its refugee and immigrant problems by clicking here.  Our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series is here.

Cologne: By turning off the lights, German Catholic Church repeats history, accelerates its death

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Islamists world wide are surely gleeful to see this capitulation by the Catholic Church in Cologne.

Cologne Cathedral will go dark today, not in defense of Christianity, but in defense of the Islamic invasion of Germany. Reuters photo.

We told you about demonstrations that should be taking place in Germany today against the Islamisation of the country, here over the weekend.

This is the first report I am seeing about what is happening today.  If you see more news as the day progresses please send us links!

By going dark today, I guess the church in Germany learned nothing from its dark past….

From Christian Today:

Cologne Cathedral will turn out its lights this evening in protest against the anti-Islamisation marches gaining momentum across Germany.

The marches led by the group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) have grown from a few hundred people gathering in Dresden in October, to 17,000 people at a rally in the eastern city just before Christmas.

The growth of the movement, prompted by the rise in immigration to Germany, has brought widespread condemnation. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her New Year address: “I say to all those who go to such demonstrations: do not follow those who have called the rallies because all too often they have prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts.”

Counter-protests have also emerged, which many Christians have joined, conveying German support for asylum seekers. The landmark Roman Catholic cathedral in Cologne is responding to fears that the movement will gain traction in other cities around Germany.

“PEGIDA is made up of an astonishingly broad mix of people, ranging from those in the middle of society to racists and the extreme right-wing,” cathedral dean Norbert Feldhoff told Reuters.

“By switching off the floodlighting we want to make those on the march stop and think. It is a challenge: consider who you are marching alongside.”

[….]

According to Reuters, an opinion poll last week found that one in eight Germans would join a Pegida march if the group organised one in their town.

Germany’s immigration figures are now second only to the United States, and around 200,000 people tried to seek asylum in the country last year, partly due to the influx from Syria. Dresden, however, has one of the lowest immigrant populations in the country.

Silence the critics of mass immigration of Muslims to Germany and one day the Cathedral in Cologne will be a mosque.

More on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ here.

Uh oh! Monday could be hot in Germany as Muslims plan counter-demo against Islamophobes

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The demonstration from both sides is planned for Cologne which saw a huge outpouring of concern for the Islamization of Germany last October.  However, the largest demonstrations against further Muslim immigration to Germany have occurred in Dresden on recent Mondays.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s New Year’s message: If you question Muslim immigration you have “hatred in your hearts.”

From the World Bulletin (emphasis is mine):

At least 13 non-governmental organizations of Muslim and ethnic-Turkish immigrants in Germany announced Thursday their joint decision to protest against the right-wing populist PEGIDA movement.

“We are calling on all citizens to join demonstration in Cologne on Jan. 5 and take a stance against racism, xenophobia, hatred against foreigners and hostility against Islam,” the organizations said in a joint statement.

“We will support all democratic initiatives and allies that oppose PEGIDA and other groups inspired by it,” the statement added.

Germany’s Muslim Coordination Council, a platform of four large Muslim organizations in the country, signed the joint statement along with associations representing Turkish-German businessmen, TUMSIAD and MUSIAD-NRW.

Union of European Turkish Democrats, one of the most influential organizations among Germany’s three million Turks, also backed the call for joining the counter-protests in Cologne, organized by a German citizen initiative supported by political parties, trade unions and church organizations.

Cologne is one of Germany’s most populated cities known for its multi-cultural plurality and large number of immigrants.

A recently formed right-wing anti-Islam movement, Cologne Against Islamization of the West, is also planning a demonstration in the city Monday. The initiative is a copycat group inspired by the Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West or the PEGIDA, which gathered more than 17,000 protesters in the city on Dec. 22. The rise of the right-wing group made headlines in Germany and abroad.

Germany witnessed an increase in suspicion and negative feelings towards Muslims in recent months as far right and populist parties sought to benefit from a growing fear of Islam and Muslims, largely influenced by reports of murders and atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group in the Middle East.

Nearly 30 percent of Germans polled by the Stern magazine said they believed anti-Islam demonstrations organized by PEGIDA were justifiable.

Meanwhile, Merkel says we love our Muslims (underlying message, our economy needs those cheap laborers!)

From OnIslam:

CAIRO – Addressing the nation on the eve of the New Year, German chancellor Angela Merkel urged people to help refugees fleeing conflicts, telling them to turn their backs to the “racist”, “full of hatred” anti-Muslim grass-roots movement.

“It goes without saying that we help them and take in people who seek refuge with us,” the chancellor said, Deutsche Welle reported.

Merkel also urged Germans to welcome immigrants, adding that Europe’s biggest economy must welcome people fleeing conflict and war.

She also lamented the rise of the new movement, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA), that has been holding weekly rallies in the eastern city of Dresden for weeks.

Referring to protests that took place before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Merkel said, “Today many people are again shouting on Mondays: ‘We are the people’. But in fact they mean: You do not belong – because of the color of your skin or your religion,” Reuters reported.

“So I say to everyone who goes to such demonstrations: Do not follow those who are appealing to you! Because too often there is prejudice, coldness, even hatred, in their hearts.”

She really does have that Leftist lingo down!

Don’t you think it’s interesting that some never learn from history.  Germany, of all places, should know the perils of silencing speech.

See our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series for more information.

Germany: Pre-Christmas anti-Islam rally brings out 17,500 protesters

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe update….

Dresden demonstrators hold a cross painted in colors of the German flag. Reuters photo. http://www.ibtimes.com/germany-protests-2014-protesters-sing-christmas-carols-anti-islam-march-1765734

 

This is news from earlier in the week that we didn’t get to before Christmas.

From the Daily Sabah:

Germany witnessed the largest anti-Muslim demonstration on Monday night with up to 17,500 people reportedly attending protests in the eastern German city of Dresden while chanting anti-immigration and anti-Islamic slogans.

In the face of widespread hatred toward Muslims in German society, some German politicians and religious leaders have condemned the protests, which are being organized by the Dresden-based right-wing group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEDIGA), a group that holds anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views. In response to the growing anti-Islamic feeling, counter-demonstrators also marched through the streets of Dresden to support immigration policies.

[….]

Peace and solidarity within German society has deteriorated over the last couple of weeks. Far-right anti-Muslim groups have become more prominent in Germany with more people starting to consider Islam a threat to their society. With the majority of Germans supporting anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-immigration policies, according to a poll, more people have started to consider Islam a threat to their society.

In the face of the growing number of refugees and asylum seekers seeking shelter in Germany and the threat posed by the radical militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the majority of Germans have been fueling anti-immigration sentiment while calling for more restrictive immigration policies.

The article mentions that the German equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce is looking for more (cheap) foreign workers (sound familiar!).

The number of refugees entering Germany may rise next year to 200,000, said the German Office for Migration and Refugees, DPA reported.

See our entire archive on the growing strife in Germany.  Any guesses—civil war coming?

German anti-Muslim demonstrations drew 15,000 yesterday (up from 10,000 last week)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The demonstrators are “dangerous” because they are not right wing nuts!

Lutz Hagen, a professor at Dresden’s Technical University, said it was wrong to write off all PEGIDA supporters as far-right nuts. “It’s already a broad movement and could become even broader,” he said.

Marchers chanted: “We are the people!” Photo: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30478321

Reuters has a pretty informative story about how it went in Dresden yesterday:

(Reuters) – A new grass-roots movement that assails the German government for ignoring its fears of being overrun by Muslims and other immigrants attracted a record 15,000 marchers on Monday in the eastern city of Dresden.

The fast-growing movement that calls itself PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, has drawn support from the far-right as well as some ordinary Germans alarmed by a sharp rise in refugees, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East.

The rallies have spread rapidly across Germany since starting with a local social media appeal in Dresden two months ago. They are now beginning to unsettle the German political establishment, which has spent decades restoring Germany’s image as an open, tolerant country after the devastation of the Nazis.

“The politicians in Germany have lost touch with the people and that’s why they can’t comprehend what’s happening here,” Lutz Bachmann, the 41-year-old gravel-voiced leader of the movement, told marchers from a makeshift stage.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been trying to shut them down suggesting they are xenophobic neo-Nazis, but it looks like it isn’t working.

In recent weeks, media reports have exposed Bachmann’s own criminal record for among other things burglary, drunk driving and drug dealing.

At the rally on Monday he lashed out at the media for what he said were lies about the movement, eliciting chants of “Luegenpresse! Luegenpresse!” (media lies!) from a fired-up group of demonstrators, mostly white men over 40 wearing shabby clothing.

Bachmann started PEGIDA in October to protest plans to add 14 centres for roughly 2,000 refugees in Dresden.

The number of asylum-seekers in Germany has surged to some 200,000 this year, more than any other western country, due in part to an influx of Syrians.  [The US will be taking 9,000 Syrian Muslims in FY2015, already underway.—]

Even though foreigners are scarce in Dresden and the Saxony region compared to other parts of Germany, Bachmann’s protest reverberated and his Monday rallies have grown from a few hundred to 10,000 a week ago and now to 15,000.

We are the people!

Marchers on Monday carried banners reading “Courage for the truth”, “Stop immigrants abusing our social welfare system” and “We miss our country”.

They chanted: “If you don’t love Germany, leave it” and “We’re the people” – the slogan used by pro-democracy demonstrators whose marches in eastern cities like Dresden led to the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

Extremely dangerous for Merkel!

Political scientists say that the ferocity of the PEGIDA movement has caught the country’s political leaders off guard.

“It’s extremely dangerous for Germany and its reputation as a country that is open to the world,” said Thomas Jaeger, a political scientist at Cologne University.

“It’s also extremely dangerous for Merkel because a political movement is now opening up to the right of her conservative party and that had never happened before,” he said.

Our complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ series is here.  Our expanding archive on Germany is here.