Thousands Take Part in Anti-Islam Protests Across Europe

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Thousands Take Part in Anti-Islam Protests Across Europe

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DRESDEN, Germany — Feb 6, 2016, 9:43 AM ET

Thousands of people are taking part in protests against Islam and immigration in several European cities.

Police in Dresden say they expect about 15,000 protesters at a rally organized by the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West. Known by its German acronym PEGIDA, the group emerged in Dresden two years ago and has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment.

About 10,000 people are expected to take part in a counter-demonstration Saturday on the other side of the river Elbe, which divides the city.

Similar, smaller PEGIDA-style protests were planned in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

Nationalist groups in Europe have been galvanized by the unprecedented influx of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East last year.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-part-anti-islam-protests-europe-36756953

[mr blur]

1. Well, there are fascistic morons everywhere.

Ask Donald Trump.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. This is response to something.

So we have to ask ourselves, what are they responding to? Why do they feel threatened? Why do they feel their European culture is under attack?

It's all well a good from someone halfway around the globe to criticize people for trying to preserve their way of life, but you can't honestly say how you would feel if a large group of people with a culture distinctly different from, and antagonistic toward your own culture, moved into your neighborhood and started imposing their culture on you. Remember how well that worked out for the native Americans when Europeans moved in an forced their culture on the native peoples? Nobody wants to have their own culture attacked and vilified. There needs to be tolerance on both sides, and right now I see very little tolerance from either side toward the culture of the other. It seems to me that when someone moves into a country with a different culture they must begin by respecting the culture of their host country. If the guests behaved with respect toward their hosts there would be no backlash.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Just to point out...

that people of this nature have been attacking immigrants and immigration LONG before they had any specific real or imagined problem with Islam, let alone before the current Syrian migration. Not very long ago, the biggest hostility was to East Europaeans; before that, to Indian, Pakistani and Ugandan Asian immigrants; before and at the same time as that, to Afro-Caribbaeans; and earlier, to Jews, Irish, Chinese, etc. etc.

'It seems to me that when someone moves into a country with a different culture they must begin by respecting the culture of their host country.'

Well, quite, and something that English people abroad often need to remember, as well as others. And there's no doubt that there are extreme Islamist groups, who don't help the situation. However, anti-immigrant sentiment is common in Europe, regardless of how immigrants actually do or don't act. Mostly it involves two incompatible stereotypes occurring at the same time: those immigrants are lazy scroungers who are only here to live off benefits, and those immigrants are out to take the jobs of the native people.

It's mostly much more like the attitude of 'Minute Men' types to Mexicans, than anything specific to Islam, even if the latter serves as a current excuse.

[rug]

4. +100

[mr blur]

5. You put it better than i would have. Thanks. It seems that there is a Daily Mail equivalent

in every European country, whipping up "anti-other" hatred and encouraging bigotry.

Two stories from today's Guardian about this -

Pegida UK supporters stage anti-Islam silent march in Birmingham:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/06/pegida-uk-supporters-stage-anti-islam-silent-march-birmingham

and

one very local to me:
On Poland’s Fat Thursday, seaside town’s migrants react to David Cameron’s benefits plan and explain why they came to UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/eastern-europe-bognor-regis-benefits-david-cameron-immigration-poland

[cleanhippie]

6. +1