Big Anti-Immigration Rally in Germany Prompts Counterdemonstrations
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Version 0 of 1. BERLIN — A public clash about immigration and integration in Germany heated up on Monday as opposing marches took shape — one denouncing the perceived threat posed by Islam, the other a public vigil for an open and tolerant society. The mass demonstration in Paris on Sunday attracted more than a million people and was largely free of politics and recriminations. But in recent weeks Germany has seen weekly marches in Dresden that have raised questions that have become increasingly polarizing and politicized: about whether Germany will ever live up to its open-arms ideals and accept a growing number of refugees, as well as those descendants of immigrants who have been here for generations. On Monday tens of thousands heeded a call to turn out at an anti-immigration rally in Dresden, in the eastern state of Saxony. Very few heeded the call to wear black ribbons in honor of the 17 people killed by terrorists last week in Paris, even as political leaders and others expressed disgust over what they saw as an attempt by forces on the right to exploit the victims. “If organizers had a bit of decency, they would simply cancel the demonstrations,” Heiko Maas, Germany’s justice minister, said in an interview in the daily newspaper Bild on Monday. “The victims do not deserve to be abused by such agitators.” To drown out the anti-immigration voices, pro-immigration groups and other activists have organized counterdemonstrations calling for tolerance and diversity. More than 30,000 people turned out in Leipzig in opposition to a call for that city’s first anti-Islam march, which attracted several hundred supporters, said Matthias Hasberg, a city spokesman. About 35,000 counterdemonstrators convened in Dresden over the weekend, and on Monday they sought to block the route there of the anti-immigration marchers, supporters of the movement known as Pegida, a German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West. In the southern city of Munich, some 20,000 people sought to block a Pegida rally there. Muslim leaders have called for a vigil on Tuesday in Berlin under the motto “Stand Together” for an open and tolerant Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she and members of her government would attend to “send a strong signal about the peaceful coexistence of various religions in Germany.” President Joachim Gauck is to address the rally. Ms. Merkel; her vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel; and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took part in the march in Paris on Sunday. In the wake of the Paris attacks, organizers of Pegida posted a message on their website insisting that they would not crow over the event, but said they expected their numbers to swell even further in their Monday marches. The marches have become a platform for Germans who feel sidelined by mainstream politicians, who they claim have gone too far in making their country attractive to foreigners at their expense. They point to cultural differences, such as requiring women to wear head scarves in public and prohibiting girls from taking part in coeducational sports classes, as indications of a refusal of many Muslims to integrate into German society. “It is no wonder that many of our citizens have vague fears of Islam that they can’t really justify,” said Hans-Olaf Henkel, a member of the European Parliament for the rightist Alternative for Germany party, which met with supporters of Pegida last week. A group of cartoonists from around the globe, calling themselves Caricaturists Against Pegida, issued an online petition calling on the people of Dresden to take a stand against the movement. The group included Willem from Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper in Paris that was attacked by terrorists, and the American cartoonist Jeff Danziger. “Pegida is cynically seeking to exploit the Paris attack,” the group wrote in a declaration that included caricatures depicting Pegida as a hyena smelling blood and being kicked. “We reject that the memory of our friends is being exploited and dragged through the mud in this way.” |