Intolerant sentiments directed towards a minority in Germany by the political right-wing - sadly this sounds all too familiar. Kudos to vast majority of German people though, who refuse to become divided. 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. The AfD, which is critical of German immigration policy, is taking voters from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and other parties. Bernd Lucke, the AfD’s leader, said in an interview published yesterday in Die Welt that Pegida supporters would be welcome in his party. Pegida demands tighter immigration laws, measures to fight religious preachers of hatred and a zero-tolerance policy for immigrants who commit crimes. An Infratest-Dimap poll showed 21 percent of Germans have “sympathy” for Pegida. The backing was higher, 31 percent, in formerly communist eastern Germany, which has far fewer foreigners, and 19 percent in the western part of the country. What’s now happening on German streets is alarming, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said. We won’t allow that the Paris events are misused and that Muslims are put under general suspicion. Germans also came out in large numbers last night to protest against the anti-Islam demonstrators, with more than 100,000 joining rallies across the country in cities that included Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf, according to figures from German news agency DPA. mobile.bloomberg/news/2015-01-12/german-anti-islam-rally-draws-record-crowd-after-paris.html
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 10:05:28 +0000
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