Category Archives: Germany

Fascists routed in Cologne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

 

By Walter Held

IT HAD been planned as a central meeting of leading proto-fascists, rightwing populists and neo-nazis. A grand “European Anti-Islamic Congress” was scheduled to be held today Saturday 20th September in the huge German city of Koeln – Cologne – on the banks of the river Rhine.

Invitations had gone out to the Italian Liga Nord, the French Front National, the Austrian FPOe and the BZOe, the British National Party the Belgian Vlams Belang and others. Theme of the weekend “congress” at which the organisers confidently expected 1500 participants was a campaign against the “advance of Islam in Europe”.

The organisers belong to a political grouping called Pro Koeln. This rag tag and bobtail splinter group with a couple of dozen members picked up just under 5 pc of the votes for Koeln’s city election and have a fraction of five councillors in the city parliament. These have a small basis amongst backward elements in the pubs and on the housing estates and have set up a campaign to fight against the building of a central mosque for the city’s Moslem population.

In fact most of the organisers are ex-members or secret members of extreme rightwing groupings like the Republikaner, the German League for Folk and Homeland and the NPD but they hide behind the new respectable organisation “Pro Koeln”. As a front orginsation the right are keen to set up similar groups in other German cities. The Congress this weekend was to be a signal of their presence and their growth.

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Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cologne protestersA weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location – on board a Rhine river cruiser – was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water.

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said.

Times, 22 September 2008

German anti-Islam rally cancelled after clashes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ProtestorsGerman police cancelled an anti-Islamic congress planned for Saturday in Cologne after leftist opponents of the rally clashed with its right-wing backers.

The group Pro-Cologne called the rally to oppose a decision by local authorities in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

It invited like-minded nationalist groups from around Europe to join the “Stop Islam” rally to fight what it called the “Islamisation and immigration invasion” of Germany and Europe.

“The rally has been cancelled,” a police spokesman said. Many protesters cheered the announcement. A spokesman for Pro-Cologne said they were surprised by the cancellation and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.

Police said 40,000 people protested against the rally. It had been expected to attract 1,500 people but only dozens made it.

Some of the protesters carried placards reading “Nazis out of Cologne” and “Temples, synagogues, churches and mosques – everything’s okay”. “We’re here to show racism the red card,” said Cologne mayor Fritz Schramma. “Racists and extremists aren’t welcome.”

Reuters, 20 September 2008

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Anger at Europe’s far right ‘anti-Islam’ conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nein zur IslamisierungA German far right group has stirred Muslim anger worldwide by holding a three-day “Anti-Islamisation Conference” to protest against the construction of mosques and Muslim immigration.

Prominent members of Europe’s far right, including French “Front National” leader Jean-Marie le Pen and Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinter, have said they will attend the meeting in Cologne which is aimed at forging a European alliance against “Islamisation.”

The conference will include a rally in the centre of Cologne tomorrow which police say could lead to clashes with left-wing groups that plan a counter-demonstration. Trade unions, churches and other groups have also announced plans to protest against the conference.

The conference organiser is a local protest group called “Pro-Cologne” which campaigned against the city’s recent decision to allow the construction of a large new mosque with two 55-metre tall minarets. Around 330,000 immigrants live in Cologne, about a third of the city’s population.

Mosques are shooting out of the ground like mushrooms, the muezzin call and headscarves are flooding our streets,” Pro-Cologne said on its website. It said 150 “politicians and publicists” from all over Europe and 1,500 other participants will attend the conference at which it plans to launch a petition “against the Islamisation of our cities”.

The meeting has drawn fierce criticism from German politicians and city leaders in Cologne. The premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Juergen Ruettgers, said: “Those who abuse the cosmopolitan and democratic city of Cologne as a meeting place for right-wing radicals are against tolerance, against reconciliation, against humanity.”

Times, 18 September 2008

Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes seen rising in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released on Wednesday.

The Washington-based Pew Research Centre’s global attitude survey found 46 percent of Spanish, 36 percent of Poles and 34 percent of Russians view Jews unfavourably, while the same was true for 25 percent of Germans, and 20 percent of French.

The figures are all higher than in comparable Pew surveys done in recent years, the report said, and “in a number of countries the increase has been especially notable between 2006 and 2008.”

Opinions of Muslims are also dimming compared to previous years with 52 percent in Spain, 50 percent in Germany, 46 percent in Poland and 38 percent in France having negative attitudes toward them.

Reuters, 17 September 2008

See Inayat Bunglawala’s analysis at Comment is Free, 18 September 2008

Racists gather for Cologne anti-Islam rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racists gather for Cologne anti-Islam rally

By Hans-Peter Killguss

Searchlight, September 2008

SEVERAL HUNDRED racists from all over Europe are expected to flock to a so-called Anti-Islamisation Congress staged by the German fascist pro Köln (pK) organisation to discuss “the foreign infiltration of our cities”.

The congress, in Cologne from 19 to 21 September, comes amid growing racism in Germany. According to one poll, more than 50% of the population favours a ban on mosques. Echoing this, Markus Wiener, a “scientific staff member” of pK, claims there should be “no mosques, no minarets, no muezzin” because “the native population is justifiably worried about creeping Islamisation and the danger of Islamist terror.”

PK was set up in 1996 to campaign against prostitution and only really targeted Muslims after 2000. It recently protested against a new mosque in the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne, distributing tens of thousands of stickers, leaflets and posters and gathering almost 20,000 signatures on a petition.

Although many pK officers and members have been well-known activists in fascist and openly nazi parties, pK claims to be a democratic citizens’ initiative. It styles itself as a “populist” party for the man-in-the-street in contrast to the other parties, which it denounces as corrupt, arrogant and “in hock to the false ideology of multiculturalism”.

After pK gained seats on Cologne city council in 2004, a carbon copy called pro-Deutschland emerged in 2005 followed by pro NRW (Nordrhein Westfalen) in 2007. The primary purpose of September’s Anti-Islamisation Congress is to kick-start the racist campaign for next year’s regional elections in NRW.

Another aim is to improve collaboration between ultra-right groups in Europe ahead of next year’s European Parliament elections. PK already has close links with the Belgian far-right Vlaams Belang whose chairman, Filip Dewinter, will speak at the gathering alongside Andreas Mölzer and Heinz-Christian Strache from the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ).

Henry Nitzsche, a former Christian Democrat from Saxony, will also appear. Nitzsche, who is still an MP, once claimed patriotism was vital to prevent Germany from being ruled by what he termed “Multi-Kulti-Schwuchteln” (multicultural poofters). He is an important figurehead because pK is now trying to appeal mainly to conservatives.

The most prominent speaker invited is Jean Marie Le Pen, president of the French Front National. Another well-known speaker will be Mario Borghezio of the Italian Lega Nord (see below).

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Cologne mosque gets go-ahead

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Moschee-Neubau in KölnAfter much controversy, Cologne City Council finally voted in favor of building Germany’s largest mosque in the city.

All parties except the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the extreme right anti-mosque initiative Pro Cologne voted in favor of building the mosque, which will be Germany’s largest. Cologne Mayor Schramma, who has gone back and forth on the issue, in the end voted against his own CDU party in favor of the mosque’s construction Thursday.

The new mosque will now be built on a site in Ehrenfeld, an industrial section of Cologne where there is currently a working mosque operating out of an old factory.

“They can start tearing down the old factory building tomorrow,” Josef Wirges, the local council member for Ehrenfeld and member of the Social Democrats (SPD) told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “I think the new mosque will be such an architectural masterpiece that tour buses will take people to see it after they visit the Cologne Cathedral,” enthused Wirges.

But far-rightists have made a racket about this particular mosque since plans to build it were announced last year. The extreme-right Pro Cologne has held 5 of the 90 seats in the city council since 2004. They launched a vociferous campaign against the mosque – drumming up support from as far away as Austria and Belgium. Jörg Haider, head of the right-wing Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) supports the Cologne protesters and has launched an attempt to ban mosques in his native Austria.

The anti-mosque campaign has been under observation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, because of its “sweeping defamation of foreigners is suspected of violating human dignity.”

Although mosque supporters have won this battle, the war over integration in Cologne is not finished. Pro Cologne has planned a controversial “Anti-Islamization Congress” for Sept. 19. The city expects an influx of prominent far-rightists from around Europe – and 40,000 counter-protesters.

Spiegel Online, 29 August 2008

OIC slams anti-Islam congress in Germany

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pro Koln (2)The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has expressed serious concerns about reports that an far right group is holding an anti-Islam conference in the German city of Cologne in September.

A spokesman for the OIC’s Islamophobia Observatory in Jeddah said in a statement issued yesterday that the proposed conference was aimed at arousing anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe and that it would pose a threat to inter-communal peace and harmony in society.

The right-wing extremist group Pro Koln is organizing the event on Sept. 19-20, with the aim of issuing a declaration against the purported “Islami-fication” of Europe. The meeting is expected to be attended by some of the most inflammatory names in European race politics, including Jean-Marie Le Pen of France, Austria’s Heinz-Christian Strache, and Belgium’s Filip Dewinter.

The organizers of the conference are motivated by racial hatred and xenophobia, said the OIC spokesman. “The OIC hopes that all segments of society in Germany and other parts of Europe will come out strongly against the holding of such a conference, and reject the proponents of hatred and racism,” he said in the statement.

Various international groups have condemned Pro Koln for organizing the conference and called for public initiatives to confront efforts to spread the right-wing propaganda against people of other ethnic or religious groups.

Meanwhile, German Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor Ralph Giordano has come out strongly against the planned conference. He said his protests against the “symptoms of a political and militant Islam” have always been based on his desire to “protect the constitutional state based on fundamental rights”. “Pro Koln doesn’t want any democracy at all,” Giordano said, adding that he would “defend any Muslim who is affected by anti-foreigner feeling or xenophobia.”

Arab News, 10 August 2008

See also Deutsche Welle, 8 August 2008

Respect mobilises against racist Cologne conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Respect bannerRespect is aiming to send at least 100 activists to join protests against an anti-Islam conference organised by Europe’s fascists. At the recent anti-fascist march in London, it appealed for activists to come to Cologne.

Thanks to George Bush’s war on terror, Islamophobia is the acceptable face of racism. The fascists and far right across Europe have put attacks on Muslims at the centre of their propaganda.

This September the European far right is set to gather in the German city of Cologne for an anti-Muslim hate-fest. Anti-racists, trade unions, survivors of the Holocaust, Muslim groups and others across Germany are calling on people to come to the city in protest. Respect is organising a large delegation to join this major protest, blockade and counter-conference over the weekend of 20 and 21 September.

Nadir Ahmed, one of the organisers of the delegation, says, “The BNP’s Richard Barnbrook is due to be in Cologne alongside veteran fascists like Jean Marie Le Pen.

“Every far right party wants to get a boost from it. A huge counter protest, on the other hand, will lift Muslims and anti-racists across the continent. The fascists appear to have chosen this date because it is right in the middle of Ramadan, when Muslims are fasting, tend not to travel far, and spend a lot of time with friends and family.

“Well, for me and many Muslims going to Cologne to stop this Nuremberg rally for Islamophobia definitely comes under the category of essential travel and an obligation to act justly. I hope many brothers and sisters, Muslim and non-Muslim, join us.”

For details phone Nadir on 07951 058864.

Socialist Resistance, 7 July 2008

Hizb ut-Tahrir challenges German ban in European court

Posted on by Bob Pitt

HizbAn internationalist Islamist organisation is submitting an application to the European court tomorrow in an effort to overturn a ban on its activities in Germany. Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, believes that the five-year-old ban is unlawful and argues it should be free to campaign in the country and have all frozen assets released.

Britain has twice considered proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir, most recently after the July 7 2005 bombings, and decided each time that there were not grounds for doing so. Last week Denmark’s senior state prosecutor also advised that the organisation should not be banned, as it has not breached that country’s constitution.

Prohibited in several Middle Eastern and central Asian countries, Hizb ut-Tahrir operates legally in Israel, and is not banned in any EU country other than Germany. Although membership of the party remains legal in Germany, it has been prohibited from public activity since 2003, on charges of spreading antisemitic propaganda following the publication of a leaflet the previous year.

More recently, Germany has accused the party of breaching the “concept of international understanding” enshrined in the country’s constitution, a charge more usually levelled against parties of the far right.

The party denies it is antisemitic and, says it is against violence and that its aim is to unite Muslim countries into a single state ruled by Islamic law.

Guardian, 24 June 2008