Pegida

Chancellor Angela Merkel and most of her cabinet will join a rally for an "open and tolerant Germany" called by Muslim leaders Tuesday in Berlin after the jihadist attacks in France, a spokesman said.
      

Germany's growing anti-Islamic movement is set to hold a new rally Jan. 12, this time condemning the jihadist attacks in France, in a move slammed as an attempt to exploit the bloodshed.

A rally against racism and xenophobia on Jan. 10 drew tens of thousands of people in the eastern German city of Dresden, which  has become the centre of anti-immigration protests organised by a new grassroots movement called PEGIDA.
   
"We won't permit that hate will divide us", Dresden's mayor Helma Orosz said in front of the 18th-century Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).

Given that Turks represent the majority of Muslims in Germany, it is not surprising that the activities of the group known as PEGIDA, the German acronym for ?Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident,? should be attracting attention in Turkey.

Supporters and opponents of a group campaigning against what it perceives as "Islamisation" of Europe have held rival rallies across Germany on Monday night.

Thousands of Germans demonstrated in four cities Jan. 5 in opposition to the weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived "Islamization of the West," which have attracted growing numbers of supporters.
     

A Turkish community leader in Germany warned Dec. 28 against proposals by mainstream politicians for "dialogue" with a far-right populist movement that has drawn thousands to anti-Islamic street protests.
      

Hatred toward the “other” has never been so causal, abundant and widespread.

Racist, Islamophobic and extremist views in Europe would diminish if the European Union is able to overcome its economic problems, Turkey's EU Minister Volkan Bozkır said on Dec. 25.

Business leaders, the political class and average Germans are pushing back against a growing anti-immigrant movement, saying it threatens the values and image the country fought hard to establish since the war.

At counter-demonstrations and on social media, opponents have mobilised against the far-right group which claims Germany is being overrun by Islamic extremists.