Heroic heroes heroically shout down 'racists'

The German edition of The Local reports that "thousands" turned out to counter an anti-Islamization demonstration in Cologne, Germany. Headlined "Thousands turn up to boo racists in Cologne", the lede goes on to say:

Several thousand people turned up in Cologne to protest racism and xenophobia at a far-right extremist rally in the city on Saturday.

According to Deutsche-Welle, police put the turnout at around 1,600. But they, too, know who the villains and heroes are:

Police in Cologne say about 1,600 people have protested peacefully against racism and a controversial "anti-Islam" rally held by right-wing groups that oppose the building of a large new mosque in the city.

At the heart of the matter is a plan to build a massive mosque in Germany's "Cathedral City". The mosque is big, but its minarets are still dwarfed by the spires of the city's largest churches. But what I find disturbing about this is the universal demonization of the protesters and the glorification of the counter-protesters, evident in both The Local's and Deutsche-Welle's coverage.

Reuters appears to exercise considerable editorial consistency in the captions accompanying five photos on the subject (photos viewable at the link):

A German far-right youth carries a German national flag and anti-Islamic placard during an anti-Islamic demonstration of the far-right group Pro-Cologne in the western German town of Dormagen near Cologne May 8, 2009. The group Pro-Cologne called a rally for the weekend to oppose a decision by local authorities in the nearby city of Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city and famous worldwide for its gothic Cathedral, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

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German far-right youths carry German national flags during an anti-Islamic demonstration of the far-right group Pro-Cologne in the western German town of Dormagen near Cologne May 8, 2009. The group Pro-Cologne called a rally for the weekend to oppose a decision by local authorities in the nearby city of Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city and famous worldwide for its gothic Cathedral, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

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A far-right supporter of the anti-Islamic group Pro-Cologne waves a national flag of Austria during a demonstration in the western German town of Dormagen May 8, 2009. The group Pro-Cologne called a rally for the weekend to oppose a decision by local authorities in the nearby city of Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city and famous worldwide for its gothic Cathedral, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

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A man wears a cross and the logo of France's far-right political party National Republican Movement (Mouvement National Republicain or MNR) during an anti-Islamic demonstration in the western German town of Leverkusen May 8, 2009. The group Pro-Cologne called a rally for the weekend to oppose a decision by local authorities in the nearby city of Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city and famous worldwide for its gothic Cathedral, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

The one photo of counter demonstrators carries this caption:

Anti-fascists carry a banner reading, "Europe. Germany. Cologne - De*Nationalize - it's all shit!" in front of the famous Cologne cathedral during a demonstration against the far-right anti-Islamic group Pro-Cologne May 8, 2009. Pro-Cologne called for a rally over the weekend to oppose a decision by local authorities in the nearby city of Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city and famous worldwide for its gothic Cathedral, to allow the construction of a mosque with a high dome and minarets.

Can Reuters possibly be more biased? The people protesting construction of the mosque are scary "far-right" wingnuts while the counter demonstrators are heroic "anti-fascists". Reuters further demonizes the protesters by referring to their flags as "national" flags, subliminally linking them to the "anti-fascist" exhortation to de-nationalize. And "anti-fascists"? Puh-leease. A group calling for "de-nationalization" of Cologne, Germany and Europe and calling them all "shit" is pretty obviously a fringe anarchist group.

Anti-semitism disguised as pacifism

Berlin-based Israeli reporter Ze'ev Avrahmi takes "pacifist" Germans to task in this column and rightly calls their motives into question.

If I had a choice, I would also like to end the conflict without guns. I would also self-righteously like to point out that violence only creates more violence. I would like to be leftist, pacifist and completely unaware of the daily attacks from Gaza on Israel for the past eight years.

And at the same time, here is something I want to ask these German pacifists: Would you still condemn the right to self-defence if Austria or Poland would attack Berlin and Munich with daily barrages of rockets?

I also want to ask them: Where is the preaching against violence when there are daily attacks on foreigners in Germany? Why don’t you cry out loud when your fellow German citizens beat up and attack innocent refugees and immigrants on the outskirts of Berlin or in small towns in Bavaria or Saxony?

And where is your outspoken pacifism when Jews, only 60 years after the Holocaust, have to wear baseball caps to hide their kippas when they walk in the streets of Berlin because they are, again, afraid to identify themselves as Jews in the former Nazi capital?

And why do you keep silent when German police force their way into an apartment in Duisburg to tear down Israeli flags to placate Muslim protestors who were becoming violent? [Video of the incident below. --ed.]

I would like to know why pacifism gains so much strength every time it is directed against Israel. How come the newspaper pictures of the war are so one-sided and pro-Palestinian? Could it be that anti-Semitism is again prevalent in Germany, only this time it conveniently disguises itself as being anti-Israel?

Read the whole thing because Avrahmi raises many more excellent points. The German fascism that made possible the Holocaust is an extreme far-left ideology, so it's no surprise that today's leftists ignore Hamas' aggression against Israel that brought about the Israeli response.

Via Mark's place, the video of the flag incident: