The glaring lack of enthusiasm at the rally did not escape attention of German politicians and media. “I find it regrettable that more journalists and police officers arrived today [in central Cologne] than demonstrators,” Michael Groschek, said the head of the German Social Democratic Party office in North Rhein Westphalia, cited by Focus magazine.
The march, held under the slogan, “Not with us,” was organised by prominent Muslim public figures was attended by a much smaller number of people than expected.
Although the event was supported by most major German Muslim associations, including the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) as well as the German Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, very few Muslims actually came.
According to the organisers, some 10 000 participants were expected to join the march, but initial police reports show that only around 200 participants had turned up. The Rheinische Post daily reported that a “thousand” people had joined the march.
Der Spiegel, a leftist weekly, inflated the numbers citing police estimates, saying it could have reached 2 000, while red-faced organisers of the event said between 3 000 and 3 500 people attended.
Police were deployed in large numbers, including heavily armed riot police, ahead of the march, German media reported.
Marchers were holding up placards and banners that read: “Muslims are not to blame” and “Hate turns Earth into hell.”
The rally organisers declared the march a success and announced that similar rallies would be held in other German cities, including Berlin.
The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), one of the largest Muslim associations in Germany, refused to support the rally.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas accused the DITIB of “isolating itself with its refusal [to participate in the rally] and should not be surprised by the fact that it provides the enemies of Islam with new proof-points [with its policy].”
The Islamic Council (Islamrat), which includes the second-largest German Islamic organisation, Millî Görüş, among its 37 member groups, also refused to participate.