Citizens' movement Pax Europa

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The citizens' movement Pax Europa e. V. (BPE) is a right-wing populist association based in Naumburg (Saale) , which, according to its own statements, feels obliged to "preserve Christian-Jewish culture in Germany and Europe and maintain the free and democratic basic order" and therefore through one of them alleged "creeping Islamization of Europe" wants to clear up. In particular, he campaigns against the construction of new mosques in Germany.

The association is the result of the 2008 merger of the Pax Europa association, founded by Udo Ulfkotte in 2007, with the Federal Association of Citizens Movements, founded in 2003. V. Shortly after the merger, Ulfkotte left the association. Federal Chairman is René Stadtkewitz .

Self-presentation and actions

In the statutes of the association following is their purpose:

“The purpose of the association is to promote the democratic state system within the scope of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany by informing the public about the spread of Islam in Europe and the associated consequences for the state system regardless of political parties or other interest groups. "

The association was planning a Europe-wide demonstration against the “Islamization of Europe” in Brussels on September 11, 2007, together with the Danish SIAD and the British No Sharia Here . This was banned on August 9, 2007 by Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans . The clubs then sued the ban and were represented by the Belgian lawyer Hugo Coveliers , whom Filip Dewinter , the parliamentary group leader of the right-wing Vlaams Belang , had mediated. The lawsuit was dismissed on August 30, 2007.

A poster campaign by the citizens' movement Pax Europa u. a. in Bonn and Cologne , where quotes from the Koran calling for violence were put on billboards and asked to read the Koran yourself. The then Lord Mayor of Cologne Fritz Schramma commented negatively on the action in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger . Schramma said: "The authors of the posters that have the word Pax in their name are out to sow discord." Anyone who thinks that they can prove a general aggressiveness with out of context passages from the history of conversion of a religion try people to sell for stupid, so Schramma. In September 2009, the association organized a rally to demonstrate against the alleged creeping Islamization of Europe. The American religious scholar and author Robert Spencer was invited to speak.

The association is close to the Islamophobic blog Politically Incorrect and uses it as a communication channel. The citizens' movement Pax Europa and Politically Incorrect appear together at numerous events and rallies . In Berlin there were connections to the party, Die Freiheit , founded by the state chairman of the citizens' movement Pax Europa René Stadtkewitz , which was dissolved at the end of 2016. Politically Incorrect's donation account belongs to the “Pax Europa citizens' movement” and is managed by Volksbank Main-Tauber in Baden-Württemberg.

Observation by the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution

The Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the Bavarian State Association of the Citizens' Movement Pax Europa as an anti-Islamic movement that is subject to observation and is relevant to the constitution . The Bavarian Administrative Court in Munich had already confirmed the admissibility of the observation in a judgment on October 16, 2014 . On July 30, 2015, the Bavarian Administrative Court rejected Pax Europa's application for admission of the appeal, making the judgment final.

Right-wing populist Michael Stürzenberger , whom the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees as the “central figure in the anti-Islamic scene in Bavaria relevant to the protection of the constitution” and who was chairman of the Bavarian regional association of Pax Europe until January 2014, stood for Pax Europe at a demonstration on May 12th 2018 as a meeting chair. As early as March 17, 2018 , posters from Pax Europa were shown at a demonstration on Munich's Marienplatz under the motto Pegida - the original - in Munich, Against Islamization, Open Borders, Asylum Abuse . The organizer of this demonstration was a group around Stürzenberger, which, according to their own statements, is the official Munich branch of Pegida and is also observed by the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution under the working name PEGIDA-Munich, group around Michael Stürzenberger . Already in 2017, Stürzenberger and Gernot Tegetmeyer from the “Pegida Nürnberg” appeared as speakers at four meetings that had been announced by the chairman of the Bavarian regional association of Pax Europa. In his speeches at these Pax Europa events, Stürzenberger repeatedly equated Islam with Islamist terrorism and National Socialism .

Hiltrud Schröter Freedom Prize

The prize awarded by the association is named after the educational scientist Hiltrud Schröter .

reception

The newspapers taz and the Berliner Morgenpost described the association as anti-Islamic .

At the beginning of December 2008 Ulfkotte left the association of citizens' movement Pax Europa, which he co-founded, because of its (according to Ulfkotte) “increasingly extremist course” and accused him of spreading “ racist and possibly inciting images in the style of a striker ”.

In connection with the ban on the demonstration against the so-called “Islamization of Europe” in Brussels, the journalist Jörg Lau von der Zeit said that he “considers the organizers and their supporters to be a horde of rather shady anti-Islam hysterics, including for example from the German side the well-known Mr. Ulfkotte with his 'Pax Europa' association. ”He also criticized Ulfkotte's only half-hearted distancing from“ right-wing extremists ”. For example, he stated that Ulfkotte had the lawyer and politician Hugo Coveliers , who worked with the Vlaams Belang, at the side of the appeal proceedings against the ban on demonstrations .

The publicist Claudia Dantschke did not name Pax Europa a right-wing extremist group, but members of the organization would use the same arguments: “I therefore even consider them more dangerous. They pick up on the same fears and stir them up further. By publicly distancing themselves from right-wing extremists, they manage to bring their discourse to the center of society. "

The CDU politician Barbara John criticized that the attitude of Pax Europa was not only "critical of Islam". The basic statement of the association is: "This religion does not belong here", it is "incompatible with our democracy", and all grievances can be traced back to this religion. With this, Pax Europa deepened the differences between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Evidence and references

literature

  • Alexander Häusler : Anti-Islamic right-wing populism in the extreme right - the “PRO” movement as a new force? In: Stephan Braun , Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster (eds.): Strategies of the extreme right. Background - analyzes - answers. VS Verlag, 2009. ISBN 3-531-15911-9 , pp. 130-147.
  • Sebastian Edathy , Bernd Sommer: The two faces of right-wing extremism in Germany - issues, power resources and mobilization potential of the extreme right. In: Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster (eds.): Strategies of the extreme right. Background - analyzes - answers. VS Verlag, 2009. ISBN 3-531-15911-9 , pp. 45-57.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edathy & Sommer 2009 , p. 53.
  2. ↑ bayern.landtag.de (PDF) Response of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior to the request of FDP member Georg Barfuß, Landtag printed matter 16/6036 of November 17, 2010
  3. ↑ Imprint of the HP of the association
  4. ^ Hetz headquarters. In: 3sat , December 5, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b Werner van Bebber: CDU argues about critics of Islam in its own ranks. In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 24, 2009.
  6. ↑ paxeuropa.de
  7. ↑ citizen movement Pax Europa: Statutes ( Memento of 25 May 2010 at the Internet Archive PDF; 101 kB) p 1; Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b Brussels court upholds ban on anti-Islam protest planned for Sept. 11 . In: International Herald Tribune , August 30, 2007 (English).
  9. ↑ Ik verdeel de bevolking in twee kampen, ik been en breekijzer. In: De Morgen , August 17, 2007, p. 6 ("Anti-Islam politician Udo Ulfkotte meets with Philip Dewinter and Hugo Coveliers: 'I divide the population into two camps, I am a crowbar.'" Udo Ulfkotte ( l.) visiting Philip Dewinter. "Of course I was happy to accept Dewinter's suggestion to find a lawyer for our organization. The Vlaams Belang also suggested helping us, for example with his security service, but we refused. We do not work with this party. ")
  10. ^ Sharp criticism of anti-Islam posters. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger , October 9, 2009.
  11. ↑ bpe-berlin.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bpe-berlin.de  
  12. ↑ Maik Baumgärtner: “Pax Europe” against “Anatolian illiterates and Arab criminals” . blog.schattenbericht.de. October 4, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2011.
  13. ↑ migazin.de
  14. ↑ a b Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and for Integration (ed.): Constitutional protection-relevant Islamophobia . Munich, 1st half of 2018, Verassungsschutz.bayern.de (PDF, 200 kB) accessed on January 18, 2019.
  15. ↑ a b Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for Building and Transport (ed.): Constitutional Protection Report Bavaria 2015 . Munich, April 2016, p. 159, verassungsschutz.bayern.de (PDF, 4.0 MB), accessed on January 18, 2019.
  16. ↑ Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and for Integration (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2017 . Munich, April 2018, pp. 189–193, verassungsschutz.bayern.de (PDF; 4.8 MB), accessed on January 18, 2019.
  17. ↑ Karin Schädler: Israel flags against Muslims. In: the daily newspaper , October 4, 2009.
  18. ↑ Stefan Schulz: CDU is trying to limit the damage . In: Berliner Morgenpost , November 3, 2009.
  19. ↑ Till-R. Stoldt: “Striker style”: Publicist Ulfkotte leaves the Islam-critical movement . In: The world . December 2, 2008, accessed January 25, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Jörg Lau : Is it allowed to demonstrate against the “Islamization of Europe” in Brussels? ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. blog.zeit.de , August 27, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.zeit.de
  21. ↑ Jörg Lau : How right-wing populists discredit criticism of Islam . ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. blog.zeit.de , September 5, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.zeit.de
  22. ↑ Antje Lang-Lendorff, Alke Wirth: Islam opponents are forming. In: the daily newspaper , October 15, 2008.