Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (), abbreviated Pegida (, stylised in its logo as PEGIDA), is a pan-European, anti-Islam, far-right extremist political movement. German Pegida believes that Germany is being increasingly Islamicised and defines itself in opposition to Islamic extremism.
Pegida wants to curb immigration into Germany and it accuses the authorities of failure to enforce related laws. Pegida has held many demonstrations, often accompanied by counter-demonstrations. In 2015, , the founder of Pegida, resigned from the movement after posing as and making racist statements on Facebook. He was later reinstated.
Though nationalism is a central feature, Pegida offshoots have formed in various countries. It is a grassroots part of the counter-jihad movement.
History
Origin
Pegida was founded in October 2014 by , who runs a public relations agency in Dresden. 's impetus for starting Pegida was witnessing a rally by alleged supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against the siege of Kobani by the Islamic State (ISIL) on 10 October 2014 in Dresden, which he posted on YouTube on the same day. The next day he founded a Facebook group called ('Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of the Occident').
On 7 October, Yazidis and Muslim Chechens had violently clashed in . On 26 October, out of 5,000 protesters, "at least 400 right-wing extremists went on a rampage in downtown Cologne during a demonstration" by "Hooligans Against Salafists". mentioned these events in a release for his first demonstration.
First wave of demonstrations
The first demonstration, or "evening stroll" (according to Pegida), took place on 20 October 2014, and attracted only a handful of people. During the following days, the movement began gaining wider public attention, and, subsequently, the weekly Monday demonstrations drew larger numbers of people. Among the 7,500 participants on 1 December 2014, the police identified 80 to 120 hooligans. The demonstration grew to 10,000 people on 8 December 2014.
During the weekly demonstrations on Monday evenings, Pegida supporters carried banners with slogans such as "For the preservation of our culture", "Against religious fanaticism, against any kind of radicalism, together without violence" and "Against religious wars on German soil".
On 19 December 2014, PEGIDA e.V. was legally registered in Dresden under the registration ID VR 7750, with as chairman, as vice-chairman and as treasurer. Pegida also formally applied for the status of a nonprofit organization.
Aftermath of Charlie Hebdo shooting and rising tensions
While the demonstration on 29 December 2014 was cancelled by the organizers, the movement continued to draw large numbers of participants in early January 2015. After the Charlie Hebdo shooting on 7 January 2015 in Paris, politicians (including ministers and ) warned Pegida against misusing the attack on Charlie Hebdo for its own political agenda. On Saturday 10 January 2015 some 35,000 anti-Pegida protesters gathered to mourn the victims of Paris, observing a minute's silence in front of the .
On 12 January 2015, Pegida organizers organised a rally of some 25,000 participants. Pegida's main organizer, , declared the six central political objectives of Pegida, which include calls for selective immigration and the expulsion of religious extremists, the right and duty to integrate, and tighter internal security.
On 15 January 2015, a young Eritrean immigrant, Khaled Idris Bahray, was found stabbed to death in his Dresden high-rise apartment. International media correspondents portrayed an "atmosphere of hatred and resentment" and published social media comments of Pegida sympathizers, who had expressed disdain for the dead Eritrean. Pegida's organizers rejected any possible connection. One week later, the police investigation led to the arrest and eventual conviction of one of the victim's Eritrean housemates.
Dresden police did not permit the demonstration planned for 19 January 2015, due to a definite threat against one of Pegida's leadership members in form of an Arabic-language tweet labelling Pegida an "enemy of Islam". Pegida cancelled its 13th demonstration and stated in a post on its Facebook page that there was an explicit threat against a leadership member, and "his execution had been ordered by ISIS terrorists".