Germany’s anti-Islam rally cancelled following ‘IS death threat’

Germany’s anti-Islamic Pegida movement says it has cancelled a planned march on Monday, citing a death threat against organisers from the Islamic State jihadist group. The “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” group announced the cancellation on its Facebook page on Sunday. Germany’s Der Spiegel news weekly reported Friday that foreign intelligence services had picked up communications by some “known international jihadists”, without giving specific details. The intelligence, which was passed to German authorities, indicated they had discussed possible attacks on Pegida rallies.

Dear friends, unfortunately we must cancel our 13th meeting due to security concerns. What in police jargon is called an ‘abstract threat’ has changed to a ‘concrete death threat’ against a member of the organising team. IS terrorists have ordered his assassination.

'Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident', in a message on its Facebook page

Pegida said it had discussed the threat with state police and the internal security agency. It had decided to scrap the event in the eastern city of Dresden as it could not guarantee the security of marchers and feared “collateral damage”. German newspaper Bild said in an online report that the threat targeted Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann. Dresden police declined to comment.

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