MOSCOW, February 2 (Sputnik), Anastasia Raevskaya - As the anti-Islamic Pegida movement has continued to fill the streets of several German cities, many German students prefer not to stay indifferent and form oppositional protest groups.
The movement, designed to oppose Pegida's ideology using "creative educational and informational protest campaigns", is known under the name “Studis gegen Pegida” (“Students against Pegida”). It consists of groups of students from various German universities who protest against racism, intolerance and discrimination in their country.
"We are active because we want a different society," Nora Berneis, a member of the movement, told Sputnik. "People within this movement are actively fighting for a better society - or at least against racism - that is what I love about this movement. We cannot wait for politicians to make things better, we have to do it on our own."
Nora is responsible for organizing demonstrations inside Humboldt University’s protest group in Berlin. Their next protest is expected to take place on Monday afternoon, and all members are currently busy with the preparations.
"Studis gegen Pegida" is active in five German cities: Köln, Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg and Münster. The main goal of the movement, as stated by its official website, is to mobilize universities against Pegida and promote anti-racism messages among students.
Students of Frankfurt University prepare for an anti-Pegida demonstration:
Ideologically, the student initiative is a part of a broader "#NoPegida" protest movement, which has gained much attention in the social networks, but has had rather limited coverage in the international media. The recent “#NoPegida” protests that took place in Bremen, Leipzig and Frankfurt last week, gathered thousands of people and are expected to attract thousands more, as further demonstrations are said to take place not only in Germany, but also in Norway and Austria.
Beautiful pic from Frank Rumpenhorst from last nights rally for Tolerance. #nopegida #tolerance pic.twitter.com/YO5bW7Zx9f
— Kathleen Ralf (@DeutscheKath) 27 января 2015
Many more people taking to the streets against Pegida than for. Not much coverage abroad but there is hope. #nopegida pic.twitter.com/K5EBfWu1vl
— Marcus Eckert (@marcus_eckert) 27 января 2015
