German Citizens Protest against Anti-Islam Congress in Cologne
AFP: COLOGNE, Germany — German police said tens of thousands of Cologne residents took to the streets Saturday in protest at an "anti-Islamisation" conference of European far-right leaders.

Carrying banners saying: "We are Cologne -- Get rid of the Nazis!," protesters gathered outside the city's cathedral to demonstrate against the congress organised by the local far-right group Pro-Koeln (For Cologne).

Pro-Koeln began two days of seminars Friday during which speakers denounced an influx of Muslims to Germany and the construction of one of Europe's largest mosques in the city.

Earlier Saturday, police banned a rally organised by far-right adherents in Cologne just as it was about to begin, following clashes with thousands of opponents.

Some 3,000 police, drafted in to control the protests and seal off part of the old city, used truncheons and water hoses to fend off violent "anti-fascist" leftist activists.

"It is a dictatorship!" said a Pro-Koeln member of the decision to ban the far-right rally.

Andreas Molzer, a member of the European Parliament and an Austrian far-right group who attended the congress, called the ban an "anti-democratic scandal." German Citizens Protest against Anti-Islam Congress in Cologne >>> | September 20, 2008

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Germany’s ‘Anti-Islam’ Conference Stirs Things Up; People Doing What the Spunkless, Spineless Politicians Won’t Do
TIMESONLINE: A German far right group has stirred Muslim anger worldwide by holding a three-day "Anti-Islamisation Conference" to protest against the construction of mosques and Muslim immigration.

Prominent members of Europe's far right, including French "Front National" leader Jean-Marie le Pen and Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinter, have said they will attend the meeting in Cologne which is aimed at forging a European alliance against "Islamisation."

The conference will include a rally in the centre of Cologne tomorrow which police say could lead to clashes with left-wing groups that plan a counter-demonstration. Trade unions, churches and other groups have also announced plans to protest against the conference.

The conference organiser is a local protest group called "Pro-Cologne" which campaigned against the city's recent decision to allow the construction of a large new mosque with two 55-metre tall minarets. Around 330,000 immigrants live in Cologne, about a third of the city's population.

"Mosques are shooting out of the ground like mushrooms, the muezzin call and headscarves are flooding our streets," Pro-Cologne said on its website. It said 150 "politicians and publicists" from all over Europe and 1,500 other participants will attend the conference at which it plans to launch a petition "against the Islamisation of our cities". Anger at Europe's Far Right 'Anti-Islam' Conference >>> By David Crossland in Berlin | September 18, 2008

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