Germany on Fire with Pro and Anti Islamization Demonstrations

Demonstration and counter demonstration sweep through Germany in support and against the islamization of Europe, otherwise known as Pegida.

Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and Stuttgart have witnessed various degrees of the rallies.

A record 18,000 people turned out on Monday at one rally in Dresden and counter demonstrations have sprung up also.

In Berlin, police said that some 5,000 counter-demonstrators blocked hundreds of Pegida supporters from marching along their planned route.

A total of 22,000 anti-Pegida demonstrators rallied in Stuttgart, Muenster and Hamburg, BBC said.

Lights were switched off in cathedral of Cologne, major buildings and bridge across the Rhine against Pegida.

"We don't think of it as a protest, but we would like to make the many conservative Christians [who support Pegida] think about what they are doing," the dean of the cathedral, Norbert Feldhoff, told the BBC.

 Cologne mayor Juergen Roters reacted to the development that people in Cologne have taken their stand on the matter.

"Today, there is really a democratic sign being sent and a lot of people in Cologne are expressing their opinion," said Cologne mayor Juergen Roters.

"They want to stress that we here in Cologne do not want to have anything to do with right-wing extremists and xenophobic people."

Volkswagen revealed in Dresden that it was also keeping its manufacturing plant dark to show that the company "stands for an open, free and democratic society."

Angela Markel, the German Chancellor posited in a speech that the Pegida leaders have "prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts".

In response, Pegida organiser Kathrin Oertel said that there was "political repression" in Germany once again.

"Or how would you see it when we are insulted or called racists or Nazis openly by all the political mainstream parties and media for our justified criticism of Germany's asylum seeker policies and the non-existent immigration policy?"

Germany receives more refugees and asylum seekers than any other EU country. Many of those have come from war-torn Syria.