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Fear of Islam not a major motivation for German 'Islamisation' protesters, study finds
Chief reasons for participation in "Islamation marches" are dissatisfaction with politics and unhappiness with the media, not anti-Islam sentiment, study finds
Sympathizers of German right-wing populist movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) attend their twelfth march in Dresden Photo: AFP
By Justin Huggler, Berlin
19 Jan 2015
Fear of Islam and concern over the "Islamisation" of Europe is not a major motivation for those taking part in a series of protests that have gripped Germany in recent weeks, an academic study has found.
Tens of thousands of people have joined a series of weekly protests in the city of Dresden under the banner of Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or Pegida.
But the first academic study of the movement found that, despite the name, fewer than a quarter of protesters questioned cited concerns over Muslims or Islam as a reason for taking part.
Instead, the chief reasons given were dissatisfaction with politics, unhappiness with the media and public opinion, and general concerns over immigration and asylum-seekers.
The study, by Dresden Technical University, found that the typical protesters is white, male, 48 years old and middle-class, with an above average income.
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"This is by no means a right-wing extremist movement, or one of the retired, unemployed or frustrated, as is often claimed," said the study's director, Professor Hans Vorländer.
Prof Vorländer and his team interviewed a relatively small sample of 400 protesters about their background and reasons for taking part in the protests.
A record 25,000 people took part in the most recent Pegida protest, on Monday, after organisers explicitly claimed the Paris terror attacks were a vindication of their anti-Islam stance.
But the study's findings suggest that it is not a fear of Islam that is driving the protests. Its authors say they believe the Pegida movement may have peaked, and will not continue to grow, after the number of first time participants fell sharply at the most recent rally.
The findings confirmed that the overwhelming majority of protesters come from Dresden and the surrounding state of Saxony.
Attempts to replicate the protests in other parts of Germany have failed. More than 100,000 people took part in counter-protests in cities across the country to coincide with Monday's rally.
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