On February 12, the leader of the far-right German movement “Pegida” Edwin Wagensveld committed a new provocation against the religious feelings of Muslims, he tore up the Quran in Utrecht. Earlier, on January 23, the same Wagensveld tore up the Quran in The Hague.
The “Pegida” movement stands for “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West”, it was created in December 2014 in Dresden. Since October 2014, it has been organizing actions against the alleged “Islamization of Europe” and against the immigration policy of the German government.
At its actions in Germany, “Pegida” used Russian symbols and portraits of Putin. Dresden political scientist Christian Demuth pointed out to DW that the “Pegida” demonstrations were attended by many who played a role in the Soviet-occupied part of Germany – “Stasi operatives, members of the SPD”.
In one of the points of its “Dresden theses” “Pegida” demanded “immediate normalization of relations with the Russian Federation”. At one of their rallies in February 2015, a woman who was introduced as “Anastasia” spoke, criminally calling for the “recognition” of the attempted annexation of Crimea and the lifting of Western sanctions; leaders of the movement appeared along with Russian Nazi bikers from the “Night Wolves” movement.
In 2018 Germany’s pro-Russian populist party “Alternative for Germany” called for cooperation with “Pegida”. As Dutch activist Rikko Voorberg reported to the Turkish “Anadolu” agency in 2018, by its actions in the Netherlands, “Pegida” is trying to provoke Muslims into clashes and thereby distort the realities of Islam.
On May 7, 2021, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Saxony recognized “Pegida” as an extremist organization.
