Anti-Islam rally draws 15,000 in Dresden, Germany

DRESDEN , Germany, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A weekly anti-Islam rally in Dresden, Germany, drew over 15,000 people, an indication of growing sentiment for the movement.

Another 5,500 attended a demonstration opposing the group, police, who had mobilized over 1,300 officers to keep peace, said. The demonstration Monday has grown from several hundred, nine weeks ago, and has spread to other German cities; each is a far-right protest against foreigners, largely asylum seekers from Syria entering Germany. The protesters were a mix of young men, neo-Nazis and ordinary citizens, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

"We don't want radical Islamists here," Thomas Schmidt, 53, a rally participant, said. "People keep trying to brand us as Nazis, but we're not Nazis. We're just worried citizens."

Germany's leaders have urged the population not to participate in the demonstrations. "There is freedom of assembly in Germany but there is no place here for incitement and lies about people who come to us from other countries. Everyone needs to be careful that they are not taken advantage of by the people who organize such events," Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Dresden, in the former East Germany, is a hotbed of protest against Islamists, and the rallies there are organized by Pegida, an acronym meaning "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West," who seek tighter immigration controls and what it defines as protection of Western Christian culture and resistance to violent political ideology.

It is part of a movement across Europe that has established right-wing political parties across Western Europe. Although Pegida is not a political party, Alternative for Germany, a party with parallel views, has won legislative seats in three states in eastern Germany recently.