In Germany, citizens are increasingly worried, with 57% of non-Muslims seeing Islam as a threat; and these fears prompted, as Bloomberg reports, [8] about 25,000 people to turn out for an anti-Islam rally last night in the eastern city of Dresden. Protesters demanded tighter immigration laws, measures to fight 'religious preachers of hatred' and a zero-tolerance policy for immigrants who commit crimes. Angela Merkel has urged tolerance after the rally, warning that some of the organizers have "hatred in their hearts," but it appears the slippery clope has begun, summed up by one 73-year-old German, "I want lots of money for a program to pay Muslims to go home."
As Bloomberg reports, [8] support for the anti-immigrant movement comes as the number of refugees arriving in Germany, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, surged by almost 60 percent last year, with the government estimating that 200,000 entered the country.
Overall, 61 percent of Germans say Islam isn’t compatible with life in the West, up from 52 percent three years ago. The country has 4 million Muslims out of a population of 81 million.
“There’s deep frustration over the silent Islamization taking place in Germany,” said Gerd Medger, 67, who advises companies seeking business contacts in Brazil and attended the Dresden rally waving a German flag. “If our governments let such violent people into Europe then we shouldn’t be surprised at these acts of violence.”
So it is no wonder that so many disenchanted Germans turned out...
About 25,000 people turned out for the anti-Islam rally last night in the eastern city of Dresden. The group is one of a number of anti-immigrant organizations in countries from France to the U.K. and Netherlands that say the killings last week of 17 people in Paris by Islamists justify their stance. The shootings “ram home our point,” the Dresden march organizers wrote on Facebook.
The rise of the Dresden movement, which calls itself Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or Pegida in German, follows successes last year in state and European Union elections by the anti-euro Alternative for Germany.
Merkel has urged tolerance...
Merkel, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and other senior politicians will participate in the march this evening in Berlin to promote inclusion organized by the country’s Muslim organizations. The Jewish community have also been invited.
“People who come to us out of deprivation or fear, who need protection, deserve to be treated here with dignity,” Merkel said today in Berlin. “We need to turn against everything that places into question our fundamental values, the values in our constitution.”
But it appears the underlying tension is rising...
“Politics cannot ignore this: they have to do something even if it’s only symbolic on immigration or security,” Joerg Forbrig, the senior program director at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said by phone from Berlin.“The CDU must take this seriously. They have to preempt the AfD otherwise there will be a stronger momentum building behind the party.”
Pegida demands tighter immigration laws, measures to fight “religious preachers of hatred” and a zero-tolerance policy for immigrants who commit crimes. The group has seen growing support for its almost weekly demonstrations in Dresden that began in October with just a few hundred people.
...
“My worst fears have been confirmed by what happened in Paris,” said Juergen Uhlemann, 73, a retired electrical engineer dressed in a fur-fringed parka against temperatures just over freezing and gusting winds. “This kind of attack could happen here. I want lots of money for a program to pay Muslims to go home.”
Germans also came out in large numbers last night to protest against the anti-Islam demonstrators, with more than 100,000 joining counter rallies across the country in cities that included Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf, according to figures from German news agency DPA.
...
“Today Paris, tomorrow Dresden,” read one sign. Another’s message was: “Better to stand tall for Pegida today than to be on your knees for Mecca tomorrow.”
...
“What’s now happening on German streets is alarming,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said today. “It’s good that more and more people are now protesting against it. We won’t allow that the Paris events are misused and that Muslims are put under general suspicion.”
* * *
But it's not just Germany...
Geert Wilders, head of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, said it is time to “de-Islamize our country.”
Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, posted a video denouncing “radical Islam” and saying that “time’s up for denial and hypocrisy.”
* * *
This will not end well...
“For the radical part of Pegida, the killings are the proof that they’ve been expecting,” Jan Techau, head of the Carnegie Endowment’s Brussels office, said by phone. “It feeds into their narrative but it may ultimately weaken Pegida by strengthening the far-right wing of the movement at the cost of the national conservatives.”
