German anti-Islam group holds first rally in UK

LONDON — The German-based anti-Islam group Pegida held its first rally in Britain Saturday, sparking scuffles as police tried to keep the group away from counter-demonstrators. Five people were arrested.

Police said that about 375 people joined the Pegida rally in Newcastle, 290 miles (465 kilometers) north of London. About 2,000 people joined the counter-demonstration.

Police said the arrests were isolated and the event was largely peaceful.

The leader of the Liberty GB political party Paul Weston told the gathering that Muslims will become a majority in Britain in the coming decades and will “take over” the country if they are not challenged.

“That is exactly what they will do if we quietly do nothing,” he told the crowd. “We have to fight back.”

Weston said he was satisfied with the size of the crowd, considering it was Pegida’s first meeting in Britain.

Professor Jacqui Rodgers, who took part in the counter-demonstration under the “Newcastle Unites” banner, said Britons won’t accept Pegida’s views.

“I think it is really important for us to unite as a community and make it very clear to organizations that are trying to get a foothold in the UK that we will not tolerate their attitude and we won’t accept their racist and fascist policies,” she said.

Pegida is a right-wing populist group that rails against Islam and “criminal asylum seekers,” and drew 25,000 people to a march in the German city of Dresden last month.

It has since seen its numbers fall off, although Pegida-inspired protests have also taken place in Austria and Sweden. The small crowds drawn to each one were dwarfed by counter-demonstrations.

A homegrown British group that protested against the perceived threat from extremist Islam, the English Defense League, held a number of protests throughout 2013, which often ended in clashes with anti-fascist demonstrators.

But the group has lost momentum since its leader Tommy Robinson quit in October that year, saying he could not longer keep “extremist elements” in the group at bay.

AFP contributed to this report.