500 detained in anti-Islam congress protest in Germany

The street battles came on the sidelines of a two-day congress organized by right-wing extremists on the purportedly growing dominance of Europe’s Muslim minority and the construction of one of Europe’s largest mosques here.

The clashes that ran into the night Saturday overshadowed a peaceful protest by tens of thousands of people against the "anti-Islamification" congress, police chief Klaus Steffenhagen told reporters.

Carrying banners reading "We are Cologne -- Get rid of the Nazis!" protesters gathered outside the citys landmark cathedral to oppose the congress organized by the local far-right group Pro-Koeln (For Cologne).

Organizers said about 40,000 people turned out for the demonstration for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe, an event backed by the German government and authorities in this western city.

Meanwhile, around 150 bars in Cologne stopped selling Pro-Koeln members the local Koelsch beer with some taxi and bus drivers also refusing to transport delegates to the congress.

One hotel even cancelled bookings made by "undesirables".

A leading figure in the Greens party, Volker Beck, welcomed the "victory of civil society against the far-right".

Pro-Koeln had begun two days of seminars Friday during which about 300 participants from across Europe denounced a Muslim "immigrant invasion" on the continent.

Earlier Saturday, police banned an outdoor rally organized by far-right adherents in Cologne just as it was about to begin, following the clashes with a violent fringe of counter-protesters.

Steffenhagen said the left-wing extremists hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks and tore down security barricades.

"This was not a protest but was unbridled violence against our police force and those who wanted to demonstrate peacefully in Cologne," he said.

Some 3,000 police officers were deployed and used truncheons and water hoses to fend off violent "anti-fascist" leftist activists.

Pro-Koeln has five elected local councilors and is chasing other official positions in the region.

Cologne, on the River Rhine, is famous for its Gothic twin-spired Roman Catholic cathedral -- a UNESCO world heritage site that survived Allied air raids during World War Two.

Photo: AFP