Angela Merkel has condemned Pegida, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident, as “racist.” What race is Islamization? This and other mainstream news stories on the movement calls it “far right.” Why is it “far right” to defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law? Why is it “racist” and “far right” to oppose exactly this kind of violent intimidation and thuggery?

Imagine that the German government crushes Pegida and criminalizes resistance to Islamization. What does Angela Merkel think would happen then? Would Muslim and non-Muslim Germans march forward together into a peaceful, tolerant, multicultural future? Or might Islamization proceed apace and steadily erode German freedoms?

“Jihadists plotting terror attacks on German far-right Pegida rallies say intelligence sources,” by Tom Porter, International Business Times, January 17, 2015 (thanks to Lookmann):

Islamist terrorists are plotting to attack rallies held by Germany’s far-right Pegida movement, according to intelligence sources.

Foreign intelligence services have intercepted communications by “known international jihadists” planning strikes against those taking part in the rallies of the group, which aims to halt what it describes as the ‘Islamification’ of Europe, according to AFP and Der Spiegel reports.

The intelligence was passed to German authorities, with an unnamed and high-ranking security official telling Der Spiegel “we take these leads very seriously”.

There was no specific intelligence on the time or location of an attack, according to the German magazine.

Numbers have swollen at rallies held by Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident, in recent months.

The group held its largest ever march in Dresden on Monday, in solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris, with 25,000 attending.

Critics of the group accuse it of being racist and, in her new year’s address, German chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the group’s leaders had “prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts”.

Starting with only a few hundred marchers in September, numbers at the Pegida’s rallies have steadily grown.

Experts have warned that the Paris attacks could increase support for far-right organisations, and exacerbate tensions between locals and immigrant communities….