Hundreds take to the streets for anti-Islam group PEGIDA's first march in Austria

The first rally held in Austria by PEGIDA, the anti-Islam movement started in Germany, brought 250 supporters and just as many counter-demonstrators to the streets of Vienna on Monday.

They were met by 1,200 officers dispatched to keep the peace, Reuters reports. Earlier in the day, thousands marched against PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West), and on Friday, violence broke out when left-wing activists protested an annual ball that attracts right-wing figures.

The spokesman for the Austrian branch of PEGIDA, 28-year-old student Georg Immanuel Nagel, told Die Presse he wanted to see an end to "the appeasement policy" for the 500,000 or so Muslims that live in Austria. He also said he wants to see laws enacted that ban "Islamism" so people who promote Sharia law can be punished like those who extol Nazism.

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