anti-islam Archives

DUTCH ANTI-ISLAM POLITICIAN GEERT WILDERS SURGES IN POLLS

January 26, 2016 by administrator

Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders in Vienna, Austria, March 27, 2015. Wilders’ party is surging in the polls.
HEINZ-PETER BADER/REUTERS

BY JOSH LOWE,

A controversial anti-Islam party is surging in the polls in Holland, registering its highest score ever in survey data released Sunday.

The Freedom Party (PVV), led by right-winger Geert Wilders, who has denounced Islam as a “fascist” ideology, took 42 seats in a poll of voting intention conducted by Peil.nl. This represents a week-on-week increase of one seat and is 27 seats more than the party won in the country’s 2012 general election.

Holland’s governing People’s Party-Labour Party (VVD-PvdA) coalition scored 27 seats in the poll, compared to the 79 they took in the last election. The next election will be held in spring 2017, at the latest.

While the research cautions that this success will not necessarily be replicated in an actual election, the PVV has enjoyed consistently strong leads in a range of recent polls.

Wilders has capitalized on a rise in anti-immigrant feeling across Europe stoked by sex attacks allegedly committed in part by migrants and refugees on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany. In January, Wilders held a rally in the Dutch town of Spijkenisse where he handed out fake pepper spray to women while warning of an influx of what he called “Islamic testosterone bombs.”

The far-right populist has been a household name in the Netherlands since 2004, when he split from VVD to carve out his own anti-Islam platform. His book, Marked for Death, Islam’s War On The West And Me, was published in 2012.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the center-right VVD prime minister Mark Rutte said that Europe has just six-to- eight weeks to find better ways of coping with the current influx of migrants if it is to avert serious political damage.

Source: http://europe.newsweek.com/geert-wilders-poll-anti-islam-419080

Germany: Thousands march against anti-Islam ‘Pegida’ movement

January 6, 2015 by administrator

German citizens gathered by the thousands in several demonstrations against the anti-Islam movement “Pegida.” Politicians said they were proud of the large numbers of people supporting immigrants. Report DW

Citizens thronged to streets in German cities to protest the anti-Islam movement “PEGIDA,” members of which gather nearly every Monday to rally against a perceived Islamization of Western countries.

The Mayor of Stuttgart in Germany’s southern state of Baden Württemberg, Fritz Kuhn, expressed “pride and joy” at the large numbers of anti-PEGIDA demonstrators, saying it was a clear statement against the marginalization of immigrants and for integrating refugees into German culture.

“Refugees are welcome in Stuttgart,” Kuhn said, adding that Stuttgart was no place for people who discriminated against others. Kuhn also appealed to people of other cities to not give in and “become a tool for right-extremist Neonazis.”

Protesters were also gathering in other German cities to rally against PEGIDA- an acronym for Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.

The cathedral in Cologne, one of Germany’s most prominent landmarks, announced that it would switch off its floodlights during the PEGIDA’s anti-Islam demonstrations on Monday, to challenge xenophobic sentiments.

Redefining Germans’

Meanwhile, German authorities expressed concern about growing support for PEGIDA. The German Police Union (GdP) warned that officers deployed in border areas had observed growing numbers of immigrants.

The Union demanded that German politicians acknowledge the country as an immigration country and create the required infrastructure. This would include accommodating the refugees and a speedy and just process for asylum seekers.

Researchers of German political parties in the parliament have also asked for a new orientation for Germany. Migrants should be able to find a place as equal citizens, Werner Schiffauer, head of the Council of Migration told German news agency dpa.

“It is important that we redefine the word, “We Germans,” Schiffauer said.

mg/bw (dpa, kna)

Record 17,000 join ‘Pinstripe Nazi’ anti-Islam march in Germany

December 23, 2014 by administrator

Agence France-Presse in Berlin

Many in Berlin shocked by emergence of far-right anti-Islamist group Pegida as growing numbers join weekly Dresden protest

A record 17,000 people have joined the latest in a string of demonstrations against Islam in Dresden, eastern Germany, celebrating the rise of their far-right populist movement by singing Christmas carols.

The march on Monday night was organised by Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West – a group that has grown rapidly since its first protest in October.

Politicians from all major parties have been stunned by the emergence of the right-wing nationalists who vent their anger against what they consider a broken immigration and asylum system.

About 4,500 counter-demonstrators marched through the city under the slogan “Dresden Nazi-free”, warning that there was no space for racism and xenophobia in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust.

Most Pegida followers insist they are not Nazis but patriots who worry about the “watering down” of their Christian-rooted culture and traditions. They often accuse mainstream political parties of betraying them and the media of lying.

Braving cold and wet weather, they gathered outside the historic Semperoper concert hall for their pre-Christmas recital. Police put their numbers at about 17,500, up from the previous high of 15,000 a week earlier.

The management of the opera house signalled its distaste by turning the building’s lights off and flying flags outside that read: “Open your eyes”, “Open your hearts”, “Open doors” and “Human dignity is sacrosanct”, the first line of the national constitution.

The Protestant bishop of Saxony state, Jochen Bohl, said the Pegida followers, by singing Christmas carols, were seeking “to exploit a Christian symbol and a Christian tradition” for political purposes, German news agency DPA reported.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, of the centre-left Social Democrats, called for concerned citizens to launch a “rebellion of the decent” against the anti-foreigner movement, saying “that’s the kind of public reaction we need now”.

Pegida, born in a city that was part of communist East Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, has spawned copycat groups in western areas which have failed so far to attract similar crowds.

Smaller clone groups rallied Monday in the western cities of Bonn, Kassel and Wuerzburg, but they only drew up to 200 followers each and were all vastly outnumbered by counter-demonstrations that drew 20,000 nationwide.

Police reported no major violence but said eight people were temporarily detained after confrontations in Kassel, reported German news agency DPA.

The biggest anti-Pegida march was held in the southern city of Munich, where at least 12,000 rallied under the banner “Make space – Refugees are welcome”.

“We have space for people of different skin colour, ethnic origin and mother tongue,” city mayor Dieter Reiter told the crowd.

“We have space for all religions and believers: for those who go to the mosque on Fridays, who go to the synagogue on Saturdays, or to church on Sundays, but also for those who prefer to just stay home.”

The movement has emerged at a time when Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has become the continent’s top destination for asylum seekers, and the world’s number two destination for migrants after the United States.

The influx of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and several African and Balkan countries has strained local governments, which have scrambled to house the newcomers in old schools, office blocks and army barracks.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has cautioned Germans against falling prey to any form of xenophobic “rabble-rousing”, while other lawmakers have deplored the new “pin-striped Nazis”.

15,000 join anti-Islam protest in eastern Germany

December 16, 2014 by administrator

By Frank Zeller AFP

Dresden (Germany) (AFP) – A record 15,000 people marched Monday in eastern Germany against “asylum cheats” and the country’s “Islamisation” in the latest show of strength of a growing far-right populist movement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier cautioned Germans against falling prey to xenophobic “rabble-rousing”, reacting to the nascent movement called “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” or PEGIDA.

“The people are with us!,” the group’s founder Lutz Bachmann shouted at the crowd, celebrating a 50-percent rise in attendance since their last “Monday demonstration” in a series of rallies that started only in October.

“Everywhere now, in every news rag, on every senseless talkshow, they are debating, and the most important thing is: the politicians can no longer ignore us!” Bachmann told the mass of people, many waving the black-red-gold national flag.

“We have shown by taking another ‘little stroll’, and by growing in numbers, that we’re on the right path, and that slowly, very slowly, something is beginning to change in this country,” Bachmann bellowed to loud cheers.

– ‘We are the people’ –

Since the protests have rapidly grown in size and spawned smaller clones in half a dozen cities, a debate about immigration and refugees has gripped Germany, a country whose Nazi past makes expressions of xenophobia especially troubling.

Politicians have been stunned by the emergence in the city of Dresden of the nationalists who march against what they consider a broken immigration and asylum system and who vent deep anger at the political class and mainstream media.

The demonstrations have flared at a time when Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has become the continent’s top destination for asylum seekers, and the world’s number two destination for migrants after the United States.

One demonstrator, Michael Stuerzenberger, said he does not oppose asylum for refugees but asserted that “70 percent of people claiming political asylum here are economic refugees. We don’t want to stay silent about this anymore.”

“We don’t want a flood of asylum seekers, we don’t want Islamisation. We want to keep our country with our values. Is that so terrible? Does that make us Nazis? Is it a crime to be a patriot?”

While several known neo-Nazis have been spotted in the PEGIDA crowds, the rallies have been dominated not by jackbooted men with shorn heads but by disenchanted citizens who voice a string of grievances.

“We are the people,” they chanted, co-opting the phrase famously shouted a quarter-century ago by East German pro-democracy protesters here in the lead-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

– ‘Repugnant and abhorrent’ –

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the marches “bring shame” on the country, and that Germany is experiencing an “escalation of agitation against immigrants and refugees”, a trend he labelled “repugnant and abhorrent”.

The leader of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, warned that PEGIDA could split German society and that their use of the chant “we are the people” sought to divide “you, the bad Muslims, and us, the good Germans”.

Speaking with AFP, he also blamed politicians and the media for mainly speaking about Islam and Muslims “in the context of security, threats and danger” in recent years.

More than 1,200 police kept a close watch on the non-violent crowd and on about 6,000 counter-protesters nearby marching under the banners “Dresden Nazi-free” and “Dresden for All”, organised by civic, political and church groups.

Most protesters claimed they are not neo-Nazis, just patriots.

“To call these people sick with fear, Islamophobic, is outrageous,” said an Austrian protester, Lana Gabriel, in her 40s. “They are not far-right. They just love the country and its traditions.”

Several conservative politicians have argued the government must “listen” to the people’s concerns about immigration, while the small anti-euro AfD party has openly sympathised with PEGIDA, saying its message has struck a chord.

Polls suggest the eurosceptic party has found a new campaign issue.

A survey for news website Zeit Online showed that nearly half of all Germans — 49 percent — sympathised with PEGIDA’s stated concerns and 30 percent indicated they “fully” backed the protests’ aims.

Almost three in four — 73 percent — said they worried that “radical Islam” was gaining ground and 59 percent said Germany accepted too many asylum seekers.