Dresden
(Germany) (AFP) - Thousands of anti-Islamic protesters marched in Germany
Monday, claiming the jihadist attacks in France vindicated their stance, hours
after Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "Islam belongs to Germany".
The latest
march of the right-wing populist PEGIDA movement in the eastern city of Dresden
came a day before Merkel and most of her cabinet were set to join a Muslim
community rally for religious tolerance.
Undeterred,
supporters of the self-styled "Patriotic Europeans Against the
Islamisation of the Occident" gathered for the latest of a string of
rallies that have recently drawn 18,000 people onto the streets of Dresden in
the former communist east Germany.
Marchers
waved the German national flag and again chanted "We are the people",
while some carried signs that read "they can't kill our freedom" and
"Je suis Charlie", claiming solidarity with those killed in last
week's Islamist attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
One carried
a picture of Merkel wearing a Muslim facial veil, mocking the chancellor who
has urged citizens to stay away from PEGIDA marches.
Merkel
earlier said she and several members of her cabinet would on Tuesday attend a
vigil organised by Muslim groups in Berlin to denounce extremist violence and
social division.
"Germany
wants peaceful co-existence of Muslims and members of other religions,"
Merkel told reporters after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu,
adding that Tuesday's vigil would send "a very strong message".
She added
that German President Joachim Gauck would speak at the Muslim community rally.
The latest
PEGIDA demonstration came after a firebombing early Sunday of the offices a
tabloid in the northern city of Hamburg that had reprinted cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed from Charlie Hebdo.
German
police were investigating whether there was a link between the show of support
for the French weekly and the arson attack but let two suspects detained Sunday
go for lack of evidence.
As a
security precaution, the eastern city of Leipzig, which saw its first
PEGIDA-style demonstration on Monday with several hundred marchers, has banned
displays of Mohammed cartoons.
'Exploiting' Paris crimes
With
tensions running high, political leaders had urged PEGIDA to call off the
event, saying it had no right to whip up hatred against Muslims in the name of
solidarity with terror victims.
"If
the organisers had a shred of decency they would simply cancel these
demonstrations," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the mass-selling daily
Bild.
"It is
simply disgusting how the people behind these protests are trying to exploit
the despicable crimes in Paris."
The head of
Merkel's Bavarian sister party, Horst Seehofer, echoed the call.
At a time
"when the whole world is mourning and in shock over the events in
Paris", PEGIDA leaders should at least "for the time being"
cancel their rallies, Seehofer said.
The
demonstrations, though largely limited to Dresden, have shaken the reunified
country's image of itself as open to the world and tolerant.
Germany,
Europe's most populous nation with around 80 million people, is home to about
four million Muslims, three-quarters of whom are of Turkish origin.
In a survey
conducted several weeks ago and released last Thursday, 57 percent of
non-Muslim Germans said they felt threatened by Islam, four points higher than
in 2012.
And 61
percent said Islam had no place in the West, according to the study released by
the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank.
Meanwhile
PEGIDA has said on its Facebook page that the killings at Charlie Hebdo in
Paris confirmed its own views.
"The
Islamists, which PEGIDA has been warning about for 12 weeks, showed France that
they are not capable of democracy but rather look to violence and death as an
answer," it said.
"Our
politicians want us to believe the opposite. Must such a tragedy happen here in
Germany first???"
Activists
have announced plans for PEGIDlA spin-offs in Switzerland, Austria and
Scandinavia, while other European far-right groups have voiced support for the
German movement.
However,
even as copycat marches are planned in other German cities,
counterdemonstrations against PEGIDA have been growing in strength.
Many of the
35,000 who hit the streets of Dresden Saturday carried signs reading "I am
Charlie but not PEGIDA" borrowing from the solidarity slogan with the
Paris victims.
And during
offshoot PEGIDA marches last Monday, landmarks such as Cologne cathedral and
Berlin's Brandenburg Gate dimmed their lights just as the protesters gathered.
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