German anti-Islamist rally swells after attacks in France

A record 25,000 anti-Islamist protesters marched through the east German city of Dresden on Monday, many holding banners with anti-immigrant slogans, and held a minute’s silence for the victims of last week’s attacks in France. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other senior German politicians have called for people to stay away from rallies organised by PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West - people whom Merkel has said have “hatred in their hearts.” The group has seen growing support for its almost weekly demonstrations in Dresden that began in October with just a few hundred people. On Tuesday she will take part in a Berlin vigil organised by a Muslim group to remember the 17 people killed in Islamist attacks at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris. About 7,000 more protesters than last week turned out for the march, a police spokesman said.

We are against all violence that is religiously motivated whether Muslim or Christian … People have been confronted by it now and are thinking about it more.

Rally leader Lutz Bachmann

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