Despite recent attempts by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to paint anti-Islamization protesters in her country as intolerant bigots, the protests are getting louder and growing in size. What’s more is that instead of supporting the protests, a Christian Cathedral dimmed its lights in silent protest of… the protesters. Ironically, the church is protesting in support of its own conquest.

Angela Burka-Merkel (h/t BNI)

Ain’t the irrationality of human nature grand?

According to a report from Reuters:

Protesters marched in several German cities on Monday against higher levels of immigration and what they see as the growing influence of Islam, in defiance of an appeal from Chancellor Angela Merkel to spurn rallies she views as racist.

The rallies, organized by a new grassroots movement known as PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, have become an almost weekly event in the east German city of Dresden in recent months.

Some 18,000 people, the biggest number so far, turned out in Dresden on Monday but similar rallies in Berlin and the western city of Cologne were heavily outnumbered by counter-protesters who accuse PEGIDA of fanning racism and intolerance.

The PEGIDA protesters waved Germany’s black, red and gold flag and brandished posters bearing slogans such as “Against religious fanaticism and every kind of radicalism”.

One poster in Cologne called for “potatoes rather than doner kebabs”, a swipe at ethnic Turks who at around three million represent Germany’s largest immigrant community.

Germany has some of the world’s most liberal asylum rules, partly due to its Nazi past. The number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany, many from the Middle East, jumped to around 200,000 last year — four times as many as in 2012.

In her New Year address last week, Merkel urged Germans to shun the anti-Muslim protesters, saying their hearts were full of hatred.

Perhaps the ultimate irony here is that PEGIDA rejects Nazism and Communism in addition to Islamic fundamentalism. By accusing the group of being bigoted, Merkel is putting herself squarely on the side which she professes to reject.

PEGIDA Rejects Nazism, ISIS and Communism but Merkel says they’re racists.