From NY Daily News:
Protesters rallied against Islam and immigration in several European cities Saturday, sometimes clashing with police or counterdemonstrators amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent.
Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest meeting in the Dutch capital. In Dresden, Germany, up to 8,000 people took part in a PEGIDA rally. Up to 3,500 people took part in a counterdemonstration.
In the northern French city of Calais, police dispersed a rowdy anti-migrant protest with tear gas after clashes with protesters and detained several far-right demonstrators.
From AFP:
Dresden (Germany) (AFP) – A march by Germany’s anti-Islamic organisation Pegida drew thousands to the eastern city of Dresden on Saturday with rallies in support of the movement also held in a string of other European cities.
In Prague, around 5,000 people turned out for a Pegida-inspired march organised by two far-right groups, while in Amsterdam mounted police charged pro- and anti-Pegida groups and arrested at least a dozen people.
Another rally in the northern French port of Calais, home to the infamous “Jungle” refugee camp for migrants seeking passage across the Channel to Britain, brought about 20 arrests, local authorities said…
The Pegida group had called for the Saturday rallies, urging supporters to march under the anti-migrant banner of “Fortress Europe“…
Pegida supporters countered that they were “European patriots against the Islamisation of the west.”
In Prague, an AFP journalist put the crowd at around 5,000 although police did not give an official estimate of the demo or its counter-rally. Police arrested four people.
“Ban Islam in Czech Republic”, “Shut the border”, “Don’t let Brussels destroy our society”, read placards carried by the pro-Pegida demonstrators who were also draped in the Czech flag.
