Pegida

Germany?s ?anti-Islamization? movement PEGIDA vowed at its first press conference Monday to take to the streets again next week after a march was cancelled over a terrorism threat.

Europe was on high alert on Jan. 19 as the suspected mastermind of a jihadist cell in Belgium remained at large and jittery authorities blocked anti-Islamist rallies in Germany and France.
      

German police banned a planned rally by the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement and other public open-air gatherings in the eastern city of Dresden Monday, citing a terrorist threat.
      

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu told the European Union on Jan 15 they shared many values, including freedom of speech, but warned against "stigmatizing Muslims" in the fallout from the Paris Islamist attacks.

Davuto?lu noted after meeting European Union President Donald Tusk that he had been in Paris at the weekend to take part in the Charlie Hebdo solidarity march.

Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Jan. 15 to heighten security measures against Islamist militants following the Paris attacks, while vowing that Germany would not be divided by extremism of any kind.
      

The German authorities have banned the carrying of posters that had cartoons insulting the Prophet Muhammad at the Leipzig rally organized by the fanatical anti-Islam PEGIDA movement.

Isn't this a restriction of freedom of expression? Leipzig German authorities explained it as such: "We think that, after the Paris incidents, these caricatures will be tools for provocation."

German President Joachim Gauck told the country's Muslim community Tuesday that "we are all Germany" at a rally to condemn the Paris jihadist attacks and take a stand against rising Islamophobia.
      

Islam is a European reality and Muslims across the continent are there to stay, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu told journalists while returning from Berlin late on Jan. 12.

"There is a settled persuasion that a solution can be found via accepting that Islam is a European reality," Davuto?lu said, commenting on the hot debate over rising Islamophobia in Europe.

Following last week's terrorist attacks in Paris, 25 000 people joined an anti-Islamisation march in Dresden, while thousands of other Germans participated in counter-rallies on Monday.

The anti-Islamisation marches in Dresden have become the trademark of the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, shortened to PEGIDA, the BBC reports.

A record 25,000 people joined an anti-Islamic march in Germany on Jan. 12, claiming their stance was vindicated by last week's Paris jihadist attacks.

However, the impressive turnout was dwarfed by 100,000 counter-demonstrators calling for tolerance nationwide.