Islamophobia In Germany
With a refugee crisis taking over Europe, German anti-Islamic group Pegida are on the rise. Advocating a strict asylum policy, their rallys have drawn increasingly big crowds. Can Germany diffuse the growing tension?
Since October 2014, every Monday, angry Islamaphobic rallies have been staged in Dresden in eastern Germany by a new grassroots organization called Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West. One in five Germans today have a migration background, but one study has found that a shocking 57% of Germans now see Islam as a threat to life in Europe. "Sometimes I realise that people are afraid of me... even when I go to the shops or something, they are afraid of talking to me", says Sonia Zayed, a Muslim. Hate crimes against foreigners have also risen across the country. "The Pegida Movement really empowers the kind of people who are willing to use violence against migrants", explains civil rights activist Robert Kusche. Anti-Pegida protests are springing up across Germany, but has Pegida already inflicted harm on Germany's immigration policy?
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