About 375 people turned out for the Germany-based Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement’s first demonstration in Britain on Saturday, but were outnumbered by a 2,000-member crowd of counterprotesters, police officials said.
PEGIDA has drawn large crowds in Germany to protest against what it calls the “Islamization” of Europe, and small demonstrations have also taken place in Austria and Sweden.
Police officials in Newcastle, England, said five men were arrested “for isolated incidents,” but insisted both the PEGIDA march and the Newcastle Unites counterprotest happened smoothly.
Photo: EPA
The five, aged between 17 and 54, were arrested on charges including assault, breach of the peace and being drunk and disorderly.
Extra officers had been deployed in the city, which was also hosting an English Premier League soccer match between Newcastle United and Aston Villa, and there were some angry confrontations as officers kept the two protests apart.
One official said there was a brief scuffle involving members of far-right groups that temporarily damaged PEGIDA’s public address system.
Photo: AFP
Some attendees held flags for the xenophobic National Front group.
“Both demonstrations passed without any problems,” Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Laura Young said.
Marion Rogers, PEGIDA spokeswoman in Britain, earlier insisted that the group was not racist or against Muslims.
“It is about integration. We are not anti-Islam. We are not here to split up any communities,” she said. “We have invited Muslims to join us against extremism, extremism of any kind. I do not think it is wrong to stand up to terrorism. Is that hate?”
PEGIDA drew up to 25,000 people to German street rallies last month.
British Member of Parliament George Galloway attended the counterprotest in Newcastle.
“It is absolutely extraordinary that a German organization sets up in the UK — it is not as if there is a lack of right-wing nutter organizations here,” he said. “They have got to be opposed, wherever they are.”
The English Defence League, a homegrown British group that protested against what it perceive as a threat from Muslim extremism, held a number of protests throughout 2013, which often ended in clashes with antifascist demonstrators.
However, the group has lost momentum since its leader Tommy Robinson quit in October that year, saying that he could no longer keep “extremist elements” in the group at bay.
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