Supporters of the Pegida movement protest at another of their weekly gatherings on December 15, 2014 in Dresden, Germany.
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According to an English translation of a report posted Friday at the German-language RP Online, a group of Muslim children, including one teenager, disrupted a Christmas service at St. Mary's Catholic church in the city of Mönchengladbach-Rheydt. According to the report, the Muslims disrupted the service shouting anti-Christian profanities. A Google search, however, found that aside from various conservative blogs, the news was completely ignored by the so-called "mainstream media."
The pastor of the church said he was praying for the children and schooled two of them on how to behave in a church, but the police were called anyway. According to RP Online, the two children were taken into police custody and released to their parents.
After speaking with parents, authorities were able to determine the identity of the other three suspects, one of whom was described as a 14-year-old boy. Criminal charges of disrupting a religious service were filed only against the teenager, RP Online said, adding that the younger children were not criminally responsible.
News of the incident comes on the heels of another report that a German was stabbed in the back after wishing a Muslim man and two women "Merry Christmas." According to Nez Planet, the 34-year-old victim was suddenly attacked from behind and suffered cuts to his head and back. The trio of Muslims reportedly fled after the attack.
Earlier in the week, some 17,500 Germans took to the streets of Dresden to protest what they see as the growing Islamization of the country. The group, “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West,” or Pegida, has grown in recent weeks, and says it started the protests to counter the spread of radical Islam in Europe. According to the Huffington Post, the protests have been ongoing every week since October, with the recent rally being the largest recorded so far. But, reports say, the group is increasingly becoming anti-immigration, even though organizers say they are protesting extremism, not Islam or immigration. Statements made by leaders, however, would appear to indicate otherwise.
“Germany is not a land of immigration," said Lutz Bachmann, leader of the group. "Integration does not mean living beside each other, but to live together on the basis of the Christian-Jewish merits of our constitution and our German culture with its Christian-Jewish roots, determined by Christianity, humanism and enlightenment.”
Others say the movement is educational in nature. “I feel that their mission is to educate people about the dangers of radical Islam and not let the Muslims impose their ‘beliefs’ on non-Muslims,” said 63-year-old Gary Hochenstein.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out at the group, saying there is "no place for spreading hatred and slander against people who come to us from other countries." A counter-protest in Munich attracted some 10,000 people.
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