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Germans to Stand Against Country’s ‘Islamization’ During Monday Marches

© REUTERS / Hannibal HanschkeParticipants hold up their mobile phones during a demonstration called by anti-immigration group PEGIDA on December 8, 2014.
Participants hold up their mobile phones during a demonstration called by anti-immigration group PEGIDA on December 8, 2014. - Sputnik International
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Thousands of Germans are to march in a nationwide protest against the country's "Islamization" Monday evening, the organizing group Pegida said on its Facebook page.

This undated image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, a Syrian opposition group, on Monday, June 30, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. - Sputnik International
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MOSCOW, December 15 (Sputnik) — Thousands of Germans are preparing to take to the streets on Monday to march in a nationwide protest against what they say is the country's "Islamistation", the organizing group Pegida said on its Facebook page.

Pegida, which stands for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West", is a social movement that has been calling for Monday marches in the past few weeks, with today's demonstration being the ninth to take place in the group's home city of Dresden. The protest is set to kick off at 6 p.m. Berlin time (17:30 GMT) in Skatepark Lingnerallee.

Participants hold up their mobile phones during a demonstration called by anti-immigration group PEGIDA, a German abbreviation for Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, in Dresden December 8, 2014. - Sputnik International
‘Anti-Islamization’ Protests Sweep German City of Dresden: Reports
At least 17 rallies against Islam and its impact on the country are expected to be held elsewhere in Germany, as well as in Austria and Switzerland, according to Pegida.

Demonstrators have updated the old tradition of "Monday marches" held in Eastern Germany before 1989 to protest against the Communist regime. The revamped rally laced with anti-Islam rhetoric is now gaining momentum across the country, with spin-offs springing up in other cities across Germany such as Bonn and Dusseldorf.

German politicians have reacted by bashing the spreading anti-Islamic movement as "repulsive and abhorrent," according to the country's Justice Minister Heiko Maas cited by the Suddeutschen Zeitung as saying Monday.

The minister described the protest as a "shame for Germany," a nation which has been the most refugee friendly of all EU nations, as suggested by the data obtained by a representative of UN human rights commission's refugee agency in Berlin. Most of the refugees come from conflict-hit Muslim countries.

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