Protests in Germany against 'Islamisation of the West'

A weekly demonstration in the German city of Dresden has attracted a record number of people, after drawing only a few hundred in October.

Police estimate supporters at the "anti-Islamisation" march climbed to 18,000, up from about 15,000 in mid-December. 

Counter-demonstrations were held in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and Stuttgart to target racism and xenophobia and promote tolerance.

Some of the reactionary protests attracted more supporters than those organised by the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, known as Pegida.

Anti-Islam rallies have been spreading across the country since December, but thousands took to the streets in Cologne, Berlin and Stuttgart to urge tolerance while landmarks went dark in solidarity. They also denounced the far-right movement Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West, also known as PEGIDA, which is against the spread of Islam in the Western world.

In Cologne, the bright lights that normally illuminate the iconic Cologne Cathedral were switched off in protest of the anti-Islam marches.

Der #Dom setzt ein Zeichen! #Lichtaus für #Kögida und #Pegida pic.twitter.com/VxquAQsloK

— WDR Aktuelle Stunde (@aktuelle_stunde) January 5, 2015

The cathedral provost, Norbert Feldhoff, said Monday he would keep the building's exterior lights off in an attempt to make the PEGIDA demonstrators think twice about their protest.

"You're taking part in an action that, from its roots and also from speeches, one can see is Nazi-ist, racist and extremist," he said on n-tv, a local German station. "And you're supporting people you really don't want to support."

Several other churches and historical buildings said they would also keep the lights off, and electric company Rhein-Energie said it would keep the city's bridges dark, the DPA news agency reported.

In Berlin, those taking part in the counter protest cheered as the lights went out on the Brandenburg Gate.

PEGEIDA's main demonstration in the eastern city of Dresden, a region that has few immigrants or Muslims, attracted some 18,000, according to police. The demonstrations there have been growing from an initial few hundred in October to around 17,500 at a rally just before Christmas.

Carrying signs with slogans like "wake up" the crowd chanted "we are the people" and "lying press" as they passed television cameras on Monday.

In uncharacteristically frank words in her New Year's address, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to stay away from the Dresden rallies.

When the PEGIDA demonstrators chant "we are the people," Merkel said "they actually mean 'you don't belong because of your religion or your skin."

PEGIDA organizer Kathrin Oertel slammed the speech at the rally Monday, telling the crowd "in Germany we have political repression again."

"Or how would you see it when we are insulted or called racists or Nazis openly by all the political mainstream parties and media for our justified criticism of Germany's asylum seeker policies and the non-existent immigration policy," she asked the cheering crowd.

PEGIDA has sought to distance itself from the far-right, saying in its position paper posted on Facebook that it is against "preachers of hate, regardless of what religion" and "radicalism, regardless of whether religiously or politically motivated."

"PEGIDA is for resistance against an anti-woman political ideology that emphasizes violence, but not against integrated Muslims living here," the group said.

It has also banned any neo-Nazi symbols and slogans at its rallies, though critics have noted the praise and support it has received from known neo-Nazi groups.

Cem Ozdemir, co-chairman of The Greens party and himself the son of a Turkish immigrant, told n-tv that while he, too, was against any form of extremism, "intolerance cannot be fought with intolerance."

"The line is not between Christians and Muslims," he said. "The line is between those who are intolerant ... and the others, the majority."

In Berlin, anti-PEGIDA demonstrator Ursula Wozniak said she had joined the protest because she felt the PEGIDA group was abusing Germany's democratic tradition.

"What is happening right now in Germany is just extremely shocking," she said.

PEGIDA was forced to call off its demonstration early in Cologne, after organizers reported being blocked from marching along their planned route, police said.

Other buildings, including several other churches and a museum, joined the Cologne Cathedral in shutting off their lights in support of the anti-PEGIDA demonstrators.

In Dresden, automaker Volkswagen decided to keep its glass-walled manufacturing plant dark, to underscore the company "stands for an open, free and democratic society."