The headline on the RT site reads Thousands in Dresden rally against Islamization, call for Western values.
The article led off with the following two paragraphs:
Thousands took to the streets of Dresden, Germany, to protest the Islamization of their country. Their opponents also rallied at the same time warning about spreading xenophobic ideas in Europe.
At least 10,000 people joined the march of Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of Europe, or PEGIDA, a German right-wing organization. The protesters say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture, and curb the spread of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda activities in the EU.
Dresden is not the only city in Germany swept by similar protests. Anti-Islam rallies were held in Cologne, Hanover, Kassel, and Chemnitz.
My problem with the rally is that I fear the German's xenophobia will spread once again to anyone who is "different" from a "good" German, i.e., white and Christian.
I agree that the Islamists are taking over Europe and North America as well, but the Europeans generally know no restrictions on attacking anyone who is not a "pure" national: Islamists today, Jews tomorrow.
It's not just Germany. Hungary embraced the nazis; likewise Poland. Russia, at war with the nazis, didn't allow that to interfere with pogroms. During World War II, the United States, with its own severe case of xenophobia put its Japanese citizens into prison camps and refused entry to Jewish refugees. (Nazi prisoners in Stockton CA faired better than the Issei (immigrants) and Nisei (American-born) Japanese-Americans.)
For information about how America traded its Japanese citizens, go to Japanese American on Wikipedia.
While PEGIDA claims it distances itself from neo-Nazi groups in Germany. it "refuses to allow the spread of activities by groups such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in Europe.
Already opposing PEGIDA, according to the RT article are members of Christian churches, the Islamic center, the Jewish community, the Foreign Residents' Association and students.
The nazis' targets were "Jews and Marxists" (a/k/a Communists). While the Jews, at least, were Germans of long standing, and many decorated for service during World War I, the nazis - like the U.S. government in its view of its Japanese citizens - considered the Jews as anything BUT German citizens. (The nazis also went after Roma (Gypsies), the old and infirm, the mentally weak, and sexual deviants.)
Now we see a movement against Islamists and while I generally support removal of people who would over-throw a more or less democratic government, PEGIDA's stance and the behavior of some of its followers is frightening.
There has to be a well-considered middle ground between the likes of PEGIDA and the liberals of the Christian churches, the Islamic center, the Jewish community, the Foreign Residents' Association and students.
As long as "good" Muslims remain silent when their fellow Muslims commit atrocities non-Muslims will view all Muslims as Islamic terrorists, and THAT is what gives organizations like PEGIDA its reason to exist - unfortunately, who can, who will, limit such groups to terrorists else it , too, becomes a terrorist organization.
Thin line, scary line.
