Today saw demonstrations in several European cities, and even beyond Europe, by Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West:

Germany’s anti-Islam PEGIDA movement staged rallies in several cities across Europe on Saturday to protest against the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa ...

After almost fizzling out early last year, the movement has regained momentum amid deepening public unease over whether Germany can cope with the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the country during 2015.

The alleged involvement of migrants in assaults on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve has also spurred PEGIDA, which says it is proof that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming stance to refugees is flawed.

“We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe’s external borders as well as its internal borders once again,” PEGIDA member Siegfried Daebritz told a crowd on the banks of the River Elbe who chanted “Merkel must go!”

Police in Dresden declined to estimate the number of protesters. German media put the number at up to 8,000, well below the 15,000 originally expected by police.

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators also marched through Dresden under the motto “Solidarity instead of exclusion”, holding up placards saying “No place for Nazis”.

Far-right groups see Europe’s refugee crisis as an opportunity to broadcast their anti-immigrant message. There were 208 rallies in Germany in the last quarter of 2015, up from 95 a year earlier, Interior Ministry data showed.

CALAIS, PRAGUE

Protests also took place on Saturday in other cities, including Amsterdam, Prague and the English city of Birmingham.

In Calais, in northern France, more than a dozen people were arrested during a protest that was attended by more than a hundred people despite being banned, local authorities said.

Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East camp out in Calais, hoping for a chance to make the short trip across the English Channel to Britain.

In Prague, an estimated 2,200 people including both supporters and opponents of Pegida held a series of rival demonstrations around the Czech capital. Police had to intervene in one march when supporters of the migrants came under attack from around 20 people who threw bottles and stones.

Later, around 20 masked assailants threw Molotov cocktails during an attack on a center that collects donations for refugees, forcing the evacuation of the building and injuring one person who was hit by glass, police said.

In Warsaw, hundreds of people waved Polish flags and chanted “England and France are in tears, that’s how tolerance ends”.

“We’re demonstrating against the Islamisation of Europe, we’re demonstrating against immigration, against an invasion,” Robert Winnicki, leader of Poland’s far-right Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), told demonstrators.

The Daily Mail reported “violent scuffles”

... as thousands of people taking part in far-right anti-Islam protests clashed with pro-immigration groups and riot control police.

Police in Dresden, Germany, saw about 2,000 protesters at a rally organised by the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, making it the biggest of a coordinated series of demonstrations across European cities …

Nationalist groups in Europe have been galvanized by the unprecedented influx of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East last year. Today similar, smaller PEGIDA-style protests were planned in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

In the Czech capital of Prague, thousands rallied against the influx of refugees and others in support of them and opposing protesters clashed and had to be separated by police.

Martin Konvicka, a leader of the anti-Muslim movement, is calling the influx of refugees an ‘invasion’ that poses a ‘huge threat for us all’. Two other anti-migrant groups are rallying in Prague and another in the second-largest Czech city of Brno.

In Dublin, scuffles broke out between people who had gathered to protest against the launch of PEGIDA in Ireland, and those who attended the launch of the group.

In Birmingham, meanwhile, police said about about 200 PEGIDA supporters and 60 counter demonstrators turned out. Other demonstrations took place in Warsaw and Graz in southern Austria.
In Amsterdam, riot police have clashed with PEGIDA demonstrators as they tried to hold their first protest in the Dutch capital.

A square near Amsterdam city hall that had been earmarked for the rally had to be shut down shortly before the gathering as police and explosives experts examined what police called a ‘suspect package’.

Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, where they were heckled by left-wing demonstrators who shouted: ‘Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!’

Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators.

Other demonstrations took place in Warsaw, Bratislava and in Graz in southern Austria …

In nearby Calais, fighting broke out as more protesters clashed with the police during a banned demonstration. France’s Interior Ministry had tried to stop the march by members of PEGIDA.
They are particularly angry about the build up of some 5,000 refugees sleeping rough in Calais as they try to get to the UK, where they will claim asylum or disappear into the black economy.

‘This is our home - migrants get out,’ they chanted today as they gathered by the port town’s station.
A large force of CRS riot police confronted around 150 of them, as a senior officer announced on a loudspeaker that all were banned from demonstrating.

The PEGIDA rallies even reached as far as Australia, where a small but vocal group of supporters marched through Canberra. Sherman Burgess, known as the Great Aussie Patriot, and Blair Cottrell, leader of the United Patriots Front, were among the speakers.

Some background on the British demo:

During last week Paul Weston was posting commentary at Breitbart and the DT explaining the PEGIDA anti-Islam strategy, and defending it against those who find the Jewy nature of counter-jihadism frustrating and annoying.  That includes me.  I don’t object to the political realism involved, but I do struggle to understand why Jews are permitted to claim leading roles in a movement of and for our people.

Here is a sample of Paul’s commentary:

we will never get them to come unless everything is peaceful and civilised. If we can achieve that, then there are a number of people I would like to invite to speak. But first things first, which is peaceful events!

Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Sweden Democrats etc, all polling first or second in their countries. What would happen if they suddenly started banging on about Jews? They would be finished overnight is the answer. Hence impossible, hence you are quite astonishingly thick if you cannot see this.

Look what happened in Dover this weekend and then look at Dresden Pegida. One works, one doesn’t. Having said that, if a civilised Pegida UK fails to catch on, then it is all over as far as democratic resistance goes. I wonder what the brave Jew haters here will then do? Type more bullshit in their armchairs or actually DO something?
Before we cross that junction, we at least have to have tried all possible democratic means. After that, lets see…....

How many years do you think we have left to mount a defence against Islam, in the manner of Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen? Not many….How many years do you think it would take to persuade the British public to return a Prime Minister who talked about the Jews all the time? Fifty? Are you for real? You think we have that sort of time? And by making things impossible, you are part of the problem, which is why it is you as the traitor.

The reference to Dover was to the National Front demonstration in that town a week ago, which garnered national publicity.  Britain First has also been on the campaign trail in Dewsbury, hot on the heels of this ballsy “Christian March” through Luton:

Ms Fransen definitely looks ideologically sound.  I don’t see her donning a bin-bag any time soon.