By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
ANKARA
A U.K. far-right street protest group called the English Defence League has urged European politicians to act against so-called “Islamic monsters” and has issued thinly veiled warnings of vigilante violence.
In an article published on the official EDL website after last week’s Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris, the organization criticizes German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her remarks condemning the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement in Germany.
“Her comments are symptomatic of leaders from all over Europe who are no longer in touch with the people, nor are they understanding the problems of the ordinary people,” the group – which has been associated with serious street disorder in the U.K. – claims.
“It will end up with the people not just taking to the streets but taking to arms,” the EDL says.
The article also suggested that German politicians were “collaborating” with Muslims in an agenda to destroy Western and Christian culture:
“The Germans have had to live with the Nazi crimes of the past and for so many decades it allowed the left-wing politicians in Germany to use this collective guilt to impose a strongly socialist agenda that is aimed at ending the German way of life, of Germany itself. This is something that is seen in all the European countries in one form or another.”
Referring to 19th century barricades used on Paris streets, the fascist group said they will soon become a familiar sight across Europe, warning “the people [will] seek to defend themselves from a hostile and inimical ideology and peoples.”
“Such a reaction would be justified by all laws natural and divine,” the anti-Islamic group claims.
The EDL also suggested that Prophet Muhammad did not really exist, a statement likely to cause further resentment for Muslims: “…Muhammad might not have existed at all but was a creation of a much later Caliph of the Arabic empire of the 8th or 9th Centuries.”
The English Defence League is a fascist organization that holds anti-Muslim street rallies. The original co-founders of the group, Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll, left the EDL in October 2013. Robinson underlined his concerns of "dangers of far-right extremism" in his resignation statement.
PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) is a newly formed xenophobic and far-right movement that has already attracted thousands of protesters in the German city of Dresden and other major German cities.
However, German leaders have criticized the group, with Chancellor Merkel saying on Monday: "Islam is part of Germany."
"I am the Chancellor of all Germans."
