News / Interviews

West policies root cause of xenophobia: Activist

Tuesday, 18 October 2016 3:16 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 18 October 2016 4:12 PM ]

Supporters of the anti-immigrant PEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) mark the second year of existence as they demonstrate in Dresden, eastern Germany, on October 2016. (AFP photo)

Thousands of German citizens held a rally in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday to protest against the formation of the anti-Muslim and anti-refugee PEGIDA movement.

The demonstration was held in response to a Sunday rally staged by a few hundred supporters of the far-right group. The Monday protesters showed their solidarity to Muslims and refugees.

In an interview with Press TV, Massoud Shadjareh, with the Islamic Human Rights Commission from London, welcomed the fact that “ordinary people in Germany are rising up” against this sort of “fascism” referring to the far-right PEGIDA movement.

He warned that the far-right hatred against Muslims and refugees is spreading not only in Germany but also in the entire Europe and even in the Western world because of the policies of their governments and the media propaganda.

The European mainstream politicians try to put the blame on foreigners and Muslims “because they do not have solution to the needs and aspirations of people in Europe,” he argued.

Pointing to the most dangerous repercussions of the policy of laying the blame on Muslims and refugees, he said, “Promotion of hatred to this level actually leads to either ethnic-cleansing or genocide.”

He further noted that Western states are responsible for the creation of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Since 2011, some countries in the Middle East and North Africa like Syria, Iraq and Libya have been gripped by foreign-backed militancy, which has killed or inured many people and caused many others to leave their homelands.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir