The most widely circulated German tabloid "Bild" and 50 politicians and celebrities spoke out against the rise of xenophobia in Germany today, a day after thousands of demonstrators protested against Muslim immigration in several German cities, Reuters reported.
On the front page, "Bild" published the appeal "No to Pegida", the organization of European patriots against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA), and on the second and third pages the statements of 50 politicians and celebrities.
"They said 'no' to xenophobia and 'yes' to diversity and tolerance," Bilda editor Bela Anda said in a comment.
"Deutsche Vele" states that former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder are among the 50 people.
"Pegida's protests address hidden prejudices, call for hatred of foreigners and intolerance. Germany must remain open and tolerant. That is why we must say clearly no to Pegida," said the 96-year-old Schmidt, a social democrat who was chancellor from 1974 to 1982. years.
His colleague, Social Democrat Schroeder (70), who was the head of the German government between 1998 and 2005, said it was good that the democratic parties and churches took a clear stand against Pegida.
The Minister of Finance from the ranks of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), Wolfgang Schäuble, presented a practical argument against that populist movement, reports German radio.
"Slogans cannot change the facts: Germany needs immigrants and we must have (open) hearts for refugees in need," he stated.
The head of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Volker Kauder, said that Germans not only love their country, but are also open to the rest of the world.
"It is part of our success and it should be like that in the future," he said.
The manager and coach of the German national football team, Oliver Birhof, pointed out that many players of last year's World Cup winner in Brazil have roots in other countries.
Reuter states that German rock star Udo Lindenberg and 76-year-old pop star Hajno also opposed xenophobia.
The media reports that numerous actions against the Islamization of Europe and their opponents were held in Germany last night. A record number of opponents of Islamization gathered in Dresden - 18.000, and thousands of people gathered in Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart.
In Berlin, according to the BBC, around 5.000 people blocked several hundred supporters of Pegida, which started holding protests in Dresden every Sunday, with slogans for the preservation of German culture, against religious fanaticism and religious wars on German soil.
Opponents of Pegida prevented supporters of that organization from marching from the mayor's building to the Brandenburg Gate, where the lights were turned off by order of the city authorities.
According to German media, around 22.000 people in Stuttgart, Münster and Hamburg protested against Pegida.
The authorities in Cologne turned off the lights at the main cathedral and the street lighting in the surrounding streets and in the square, thus opposing Pegida supporters who they believe support extremism.
After that, the organizers of the anti-Islamic march in Cologne decided to cancel its holding.
"We wanted to force conservative Christians to think about what they are doing," Cologne Cathedral elder Norbert Feldhof told the BBC. One poster in Cologne read "rather potatoes than doner kebab", a blow to ethnic Turks, who number around three million and are Germany's largest immigrant community, according to Reuters.
In her New Year's address, German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the actions of Pegida, calling their leaders insensitive and violent, the BBC reminds.
The British network reports that according to the "Sterna" poll, one in eight German residents is ready to join Pegida's actions against radical Islam if they were held in their vicinity.
The movement itself is trying to distance itself from the extreme right and in its program they state that they are against "apologists of hatred, regardless of their religious affiliation", as well as against "all radicalism, regardless of political or religious motives".
"Pegida opposes a misogynistic political ideology that emphasizes violence, but we are not against the integration of Muslims living in the country," said the movement, which has banned any kind of neo-Nazi symbols and slogans from its rallies.
Germany annually accepts the largest number of refugees from the countries of the Islamic world of all European countries, and many arrive from war-torn Syria, according to the British service.
According to Reuters, Germany has one of the most liberal asylum regimes in place, partly because of "its Nazi past".
The number of asylum seekers arriving in the country, mostly from the Middle East, increased to nearly 200.000 last year, four times more than in 2012.
The Russian TASS reports that between 3,8 and 4,3 million Muslims live in Germany, which is approximately five percent of the total population.
Approximately 65 percent of them are Sunnis, seven percent Shiites, 13 percent belong to the tolerant branch of Islam Alawites, while there are also Salafists, supporters of an extremely conservative interpretation of Islam.
Local media often equate them with Islamists, and there are about 6.000 of them in Germany and they are under increased attention of the services there, according to the Russian agency.
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