Lutz Bachmann

The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islamic Pegida movement was May 3 convicted of inciting racial hatred and fined nearly 10,000 euros for branding refugees "cattle" and "scum" on social media.

The German anti-Islam movement PEGIDA staged its biggest rally in months on Oct. 19, sparked into fresh life on its first anniversary by anger at the government's decision to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East. 

The leader of a German organization against the perceived "Islamization" of Europe stepped down Jan. 21 after online posts surfaced in which he used derogatory language to refer to refugees and posed looking like Adolf Hitler.
     

The leader of Germany's "anti-Islamisation" movement PEGIDA has stepped down after newspapers published a photo showing him apparently posing with Hitler-style toothbrush moustache.

In its online edition, Germany's Dresdner Morgenpost newspaper reproduced a picture which it claimed was from Bachmann's Facebook profile showing him posing in the style of Adolf Hitler.

Germany?s ?anti-Islamization? movement PEGIDA vowed at its first press conference Monday to take to the streets again next week after a march was cancelled over a terrorism threat.

Europe was on high alert on Jan. 19 as the suspected mastermind of a jihadist cell in Belgium remained at large and jittery authorities blocked anti-Islamist rallies in Germany and France.
      

German police banned a planned rally by the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement and other public open-air gatherings in the eastern city of Dresden Monday, citing a terrorist threat.
      

Given that Turks represent the majority of Muslims in Germany, it is not surprising that the activities of the group known as PEGIDA, the German acronym for ?Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident,? should be attracting attention in Turkey.

Thousands of Germans demonstrated in four cities Jan. 5 in opposition to the weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived "Islamization of the West," which have attracted growing numbers of supporters.
     

A record 15,000 people marched Monday in eastern Germany against "asylum cheats" and the country's "Islamization" in the latest show of strength of a growing far-right populist movement.