Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government have condemned the grassroots movement PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, which drew a record crowd of 18,000 to its latest rally on Monday in Dresden.
Gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a French satirical magazine known for lampooning radical Islam on Wednesday. At least 12 people were killed in the attack, the worst by militants on French soil in decades. One gunman was seen on video shouting "Allah!" as shots rang out.
"The Islamists, against whom PEGIDA has been warning over the last 12 weeks, showed in France today that they are not capable of (practicing) democracy but instead see violence and death as the solution," PEGIDA wrote on its Facebook page.
"Our political leaders want us to believe the opposite is true," the group added.
"Does a tragedy like this first have to happen in Germany?" » | Reuters | Wednesday, January 07, 2015
