Denmark: Anti-Islam Pegida protesters stage rally in Copenhagen

After major death threats led to the cancellation of the weekly Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) march in Dresden, Germany, organisers of a Pegida event in Copenhagen confirmed the demonstration will go as planned on Monday (19 January).

Nicolai Sennels, the organiser of the Pegida march in Copenhagen, took to Twitter before the march and said: "There are again rumours that Pegidadk rally is cancelled and rescheduled. It is not. The demonstration will be held as scheduled."

The organiser said his march is a demonstration against "fundamental Islam". Speaking to Politiken, Sennels said: "I will give ordinary middle class Danes - like myself - the chance to send a signal to those who try to intimidate us and say: No thanks to your ideology."

In an article titled 'Psychology: Why Islam creates monsters' in Jihad Watch, Sennels earlier addressed his concerns about Islam and said: "The problem with Islam and Muslim culture is that there are so many psychological factors pushing its followers towards a violent attitude against non-Muslims that a general violent clash is — at least from a psychological perspective — inevitable."

Monday's event marked Pegida's first real inauguration march in Denmark.

Meanwhile, demonstrators from the Revolutionære Antifacister (Revolutionary Anti-Fascists) group were also confirmed to come face to face with the Pegida demonstrators, reported The Local.

In a Facebook post, the Revolutionary Anti-Fascists group encouraged its supporters to "show their resistance" to Pegida demonstrators.

The message read: "We still encourage all anti-racists, anti-fascists and other comrades to remain in the area or head toward the National Gallery of Denmark and the Little Mermaid after the demonstration is over and show their resistance against Pegida DK in the way you wish to do it."

Meanwhile, police officials said they will hold a "very visible" presence at the Copenhagen demonstrations.

Copenhagen Police inspector Mogens Lauridsen said: "We have put together a large police operation with a large set-up. We will be very visible at the location to ensure that everything goes down peacefully and orderly."

An estimated 300 people had signed up to participate in the Denmark's Pegida protests planned for Copenhagen and Aarhus in western Denmark.