CAIRO – Forming a chain of lights for kilometers, thousands of people of the east German city of Leipzig have rallied against the anti-Islam movement Legida, rejecting anti-Muslim sentiments flared by the right-wing group.
“We have to take to the streets so long as people continue to make racist arguments,” Leipzig’s Mayor Burkhard Jung said during the rally, Deutsche Welle reported.
Jung added that people in the German state of Saxony have “a problem with xenophobia” and that they need to catch up in terms of openness and tolerance.
The rally, held on Sunday night, started when thousands of Leipzig city took to the streets against Legida; the local chapter of xenophobic group PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West).
The rally was attended by a broad coalition of trade unions, commerce, culture and associations as well as some German parties.
Holding candles in their hand, the anti-LEGIDA protesters formed a “chain of lights” which stretched for 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) around the city center.
Up to 2,800 people took part in the protest against the xenophobic group, according to observers.
Despite of huge police attendance, to prevent any clashes between Pegida followers and protesters, 250 masked hooligans rioted in the district of Connewitz in the evening.
On Sunday, German police had to break up demonstrations by anti-immigrant Pegida and right-wing extremists after they clashed with police in the western city of Cologne.
Germany is believed to be home to nearly 4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin alone. Turks make up an estimated two thirds of the Muslim minority.
Germans have grown hostile to the Muslim presence recently, with a heated debate on the Muslim immigration into the country.
Over the past months, the group “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident” or PEGIDA has been holding weekly marches against Muslims and immigrants.
According to an opinion Poll, 1 in 8 Germans said that they would join anti-Muslims marches organized by PEGIDA.