Discrimination

French President Francois Hollande vowed Feb. 23 to introduce tougher penalties for "racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic" remarks in the wake of last month's militant attacks in Paris.
      

The Council of Europe has commended Greece for a new anti-racism law but warns in a new report that xenophobia, violence against immigrants and discrimination against Roma are persistent problems.

Alternate Citizens? Protection Minister Yiannis Panousis said on Wednesday that he will allow minorities and migrants to join the Hellenic Police (ELAS) with the aim of making it a multicultural force.

?In a multicultural society, you must have a multicultural police force,? he told the Federation of Greek Police Officers (POASY).

The German movement Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) held it first rally in Austria on Monday.

However PEGIDA failed to attract as many supporters as it usually does in its marches in Germany, the BBC reports.

Germany's PEGIDA "anti-Islamisation" movement held its first march in Austria on Feb. 2 but was dwarfed by a colourful counter-demonstration more than 10 times larger, according to police estimates.
 
A number of the PEGIDA supporters at the Vienna demonstration were skinheads, and some of them performed Nazi salutes, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
 

PRAGUE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic participated in the roundtable debate in Prague on Tuesday to adopt the Prague declaration on the fight against anti-Semitism and hate crimes, and she said that everyone should join the fight against anti-Semitism and all other modes of discrimination.

More than 17,000 anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets in several German cities on Jan. 19 to voice opposition to the PEGIDA anti-Islamic movement, whose own weekly rally was cancelled over a terrorism threat.
      
The counter-protests drew smaller crowds than last week, when some 100,000 people called for tolerance nationwide.
      

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.

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.

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.