A Pegida protest in Dresden, Germany, on January 25.Reuters
Pegida, an anti-Islamization group founded in Germany, will formally announce an Irish branch of the organization at a protest rally in Dublin on February 6th. Ireland will become the 15th country to establish its own branch of the organization. The German group will in future contest German elections and the Irish group may well follow suit.
Peter O’Loughlin, who will be running for Identity Ireland in Cork North Central, confirmed the launch of Pegida Ireland at a press conference, where he introduced Pegida UK coordinator and former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, the Irish Times reports.
“Pegida [Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident, in German] is making international headlines,” said O’Loughlin. “It is giving the people of Europe a chance to speak out and have a voice against the absolutely disastrous policies of the EU and of the German government and the various puppet governments around Europe.”
Pegida UK coordinator Robinson, whose mother if from Dublin, warned Ireland against making the same mistake as Britain by allowing in large numbers of Muslims who fail to integrate.
“We have polarised communities, we have segregated communities, we have Islamic ghettoes – we have an epidemic of jihad rape gangs targeting English girls . . . these are the realities which are on their way to Ireland.”
Muslims strike back against anti-Muslim sentiment in Ireland. Credit: Irish Independent.
Robinson said that when he founded the English Defence League six years ago, politicians called him an extremist. He said they now recognized the dangers posed by radical Islam.
“The majority of the world accepts this mindset – which we called Isis and which is a literal interpretation of Islam – is a danger to us all. You have a population of 4.5 million people, you cannot sustain open borders, you have to close your borders as does the rest of Europe.”
O’Loughlin signed a pledge committing Identity Ireland to join anti-migration organization Fortress Europe before Dan Ó Loinsigh read a statement on behalf of Pegida Ireland.
“Despite the obvious chaos engulfing Europe, our liberal leaders bury their heads in the sand and their outright refusal to engage in practicality or common sense is nothing short of treasonous,” he said.
“We hope to give the Irish people the opportunity to voice their concerns in a peaceful, proactive manner against mass migration, EU economic madness and Islamic extremism.”
Despite the neutral words the organization's Twitter feed is full of negative and racial comments about Muslims.