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Anti-Islam groups launch Europe-wide coalition pledging to defend 'Western civilisation'

ANTI-ISLAMISATION groups from across Europe have joined forces to form a single mass movement today with a pledge to protect "the thousand-year history of Western Civilisation".

By Nick Gutteridge

Anti-Islamisation groups across Europe have joined forces pledging to defend Western Civilisation

The British branch of the far-right PEGIDA movement will join colleagues from across the continent as part of the Fortress Europe coalition, which says it will "never surrender to our enemies" amid concerns about mass Muslim migration.

The new alliance brings together tens of thousands of campaigners from across Europe and has been announced in response to the escalating migrant crisis and alleged refugee sex attacks in Germany and Sweden.

It will feature veteran activists from all corners of Europe including Tommy Robinson - the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL) who is now fronting PEGIDA UK.

Tommy Robinson

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Former EDL leader Tommy Robinson is fronting PEGIDA UK

The groups met near Prague last week to thrash out a common mission statement with eight bullet points in which the campaigners pledge to "risk our lives" to oppose "political Islam, extreme Islamic regimes and their European collaborators".

The movement is being spearheaded by campaigners from Germany, where PEGIDA was founded, and which has taken in more than one million refugees and migrants flooding into Europe from the Middle East, Asia and North Africa.

Criticism of Angela Merkel's open door migration policy has been growing amid fury over the Cologne refugee sex attacks and subsequent cover-up attempts by authorities.

Speaking at the conference in the Czech capital, leading PEGIDA activist Tatijana Festerling raged: "Merkel is growing a massive surplus of men in Germany.

Angela Merkel taking a selfie with a migrant

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Angela Merkel's open-door immigration policy has sparked fury amongst some members of the far-right

"The goal of the network is international understanding. For only by the profound solidarity among peoples will it be possible for us to cooperatively ward off the population replacement and the Islamisation of Europe that goes with it. Submission is out of the question."

Merkel is growing a massive surplus of men in Germany

Tatijana Festerling, PEGIDA activist

Marek Cernoch, the chairman of the Czech party Usvit, which hosted the meeting in the town of Roztoky just outside Prague, added that the new coalition will campaign for tougher immigration rules to stop a repeat of the Cologne rapes.

He said: "We will demand the strictest measures against migrants; we want to defend our women and children, all Europeans from them."

Mr Cernoch also criticised EU lawmakers and the media for the way they handled the issue of migrant sex attacks.

protestors in Germany

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PEGIDA has carried out a number of demonstrations since the Cologne attacks at New Year

He fumed: "What do we see? Recently, Brussels' diplomatic head Mogherini visited Prague. And we heard that the mass violence in Cologne was not an emergency and 'things like that happen all the time.'

"The German and European media in fact belittle the tragedy of the actions committed by these visiting vandals."

PEGIDA has carried out a number of demonstrations since the Cologne attacks, when a gang of more than 1,000 migrant men went on the rampage raping and robbing women out celebrating New Year's Eve.

The new Fortress Europe coalition is planning to hold mass demonstrations across Europe on February 6, which will include a 'Silent Walk' protest in Birmingham organised by PEGIDA UK.

The group is operating a strict policy of no face coverings at the event, which will also be alcohol free, as it tries to distinguish itself from the hooligan reputation of the EDL