Anti-Islam PEGIDA Protest Across Europe Against Migrants

KABUL: (MEP) Thousands of protesters from the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement on Saturday took to the streets of several cities across Europe marching rallies against the influx of refugees into the region, the Daily Mail reported. 

In Prague, around 5,000 people turned out for a Pegida-inspired march organised by two far-right groups, while in Amsterdam mounted police charged pro- and anti-Pegida groups and arrested at least a dozen people.

There were also far right demonstrations in the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia and even Australia. 

PEGIDA, a German acronym that stands for the “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West,” has capitalized on the ongoing flow of asylum seekers into Europe to warn about the future of the continent.

The Pegida group had called for the Saturday rallies, urging supporters to march under the anti-migrant banner of “Fortress Europe”.

In Birmingham, 100 – 300 protesters joined the first PEGIDA demonstration in Britain. A silent march walked through a Birmingham industrial estate, a Guardian journalist reported.

“We are demonstrating because we are very worried about our country and Islam,” said 51-year-old Yvette from Utrecht, who carried a white banner saying “Pegida is Love” in Dutch.

Meanwhile, an anti-Pegida demonstrator Tommy Morelli, 32, told AFP: “I cannot believe that these guys (pro-Pegida supporters) can still think the way they do in this day and age. It’s shameful.”

In Calais, France, which is home to the infamous “Jungle” refugee camp for those seeking passage across the Channel Tunnel to the UK, some 150 demonstrators defied a ban on protests and clashed with police.

The French police dispersed the Calais protest with tear gas and arrested about 20 people, according to local authorities.

In Dublin, there were scuffles as hundreds of counter-protesters came out against PEGIDA demonstrators.

Sinn Fein MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan said to a counter-rally on O’Connell Street: “We are standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity to show that there is no place in Ireland for racism and Islamophobia.”

“There is no place in Ireland for hate. We are a welcoming nation because we are no strangers to migration.”