Lights go dark in Germany against growing anti-Islam demonstrators

Thousands of Germans have demonstrated in four cities in opposition to the weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived “Islamisation of the West”, which have attracted growing numbers of supporters. Organisers of the opposing demonstrations in Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne and Dresden said they were rallying against racism and xenophobia to instead promote a message of tolerance. Cologne Cathedral provost Norbert Feldhoff told n-tv that shutting down the lights was an attempt to make the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, demonstrators think twice about their protest. PEGIDA had attracted its biggest crowd yet in Dresden on Monday night.

You’re taking part in an action that, from its roots and also from speeches, one can see is Nazi-ist, racist and extremist. And you’re supporting people you really don’t want to support.

Cologne Cathedral provost Norbert Feldhoff on German TV

In Dresden, automaker Volkswagen decided to keep its glass-walled manufacturing plant dark, to underscore the company “stands for an open, free and democratic society.” PEGIDA has broadened its appeal by distancing itself from the far right, saying in its position paper posted on Facebook that it is against “preachers of hate, regardless of what religion” and “radicalism, regardless of whether religiously or politically motivated”. It has also banned any neo-Nazi symbols and slogans at its rallies, though critics have noted the praise and support it has received from known neo-Nazi groups.

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