Germany: "Tug of war" between protests

(Baonghean) - Entering 2015, Germany is currently "torn" between two protest trends. On one side are anti-Islamists and on the other side are those who oppose the protests. It seems that the confrontation between the two trends is becoming increasingly tense when on Monday, a record number of anti-Islamists gathered to protest in Dresden.

Thousands of people attended an anti-Islam protest in Dresden on Monday. Photo: AP/Jens Meyer

On Monday, January 5, about 18,000 protesters gathered in Dresden, responding to the call of the movement calling itself “Patriotic Europeans Against Islam in the West” (Pegida). According to the authorities, this was the largest demonstration ever against Muslims in Germany as well as in the West.

Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s call to refrain from “racist” rallies every Monday since October 2014, protesters once again chanted “Wir sind das Volk!” (We are the people) on January 5, a slogan that originated with anti-regime protesters in East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Before the Pegida demonstrations in Dresden, several other cities also held protests against this racist demonstration. In Dresden itself, at the initiative of an association called “Dresden for All”, about 3,000 people gathered to oppose the Pegida demonstrations that were taking place across Germany. These people chanted “Come and talk! We really want to solve the problem!”

In Cologne in the west, thousands of people stood up to protest against hundreds of anti-Islamist protesters. The Pegida protesters carried signs reading: “Criticism of the Islamic regime is acceptable, but hatred of Muslims is inhumane.”

According to the DPA news agency, in Berlin, about 300 anti-Islam protesters gathered in the areas around the city hall. At the same time, about 5,000 others also stood up to protest the protests, including the participation of Heiko Maas, Federal Minister of Justice. Mr. Maas said that the Pegida protests were "a disgrace to Germany". About 10,000 people in the city of Münster, 8,000 people in Stuttgart or 4,000 people in Hamburg stood up to protest against the Pegida movement.

The Pegida movement is a movement that rejects the presence of “Islam” in German society as well as opposes extremist Islamic jihadists. Pegida targets not only Islam, but also foreigners, the media (which is considered a means of demagoguery), political elites, etc. Pegida believes that all of the above will cause Germany’s Christian culture to be “diluted”.

It is known that in her New Year's speech, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on people not to participate in events like this. Ms. Merkel said that the founders of the above movement are "people with hearts full of prejudice and hatred".

Chu Thanh(According to LeMonde 6/1)