A German group protesting over what it calls "the Islamisation of the West" has vowed that it will not be silenced after its weekly rally was cancelled following an alleged terrorist threat against one of its organisers.
The planned demonstration in Dresden by Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, was scrapped and local police banned all rallies yesterday after being informed of a call for attackers to kill Lutz Bachmann, Pegida's best-known figure.
Yesterday's cancellation "doesn't mean that we'll let ourselves be gagged ... (or) deprived of the right to freedom of assembly and opinion," co-organiser Kathrin Oertel said at a news conference.
Mr Bachmann said a demonstration is planned for next week.
About 25,000 people attended last week's Pegida demonstration in Dresden, police estimated. Similar groups in other German cities have not drawn anywhere near as much support, and there have been much larger demonstrations against them.
While German politicians have claimed that the group is stirring racist sentiments with its anti-foreigner rhetoric, they have also backed its right to hold protests.
German leader Angela Merkel said: "As chancellor, regardless of whether I like the contents, I have an immediate interest in ensuring that there can be demonstrations in every place in Germany, because it is a fundamental right.
"The great majority in Germany rejects Pegida and has taken to the streets against Pegida in recent weeks," said German justice minister Heiko Maas, a sharp critic of the Dresden rallies.
"That must continue to be possible, even if there were certainly good reasons for the individual decision by security authorities in Dresden."
In neighbouring Denmark, a group using the Pegida name held a peaceful rally in central Copenhagen.
Police said that about 200 people attended the torchlight march through the city streets while an anti-Pegida protest attracted an estimated 350 demonstrators.
Police spokesman Allan Teddy Wadsworth-Hansen said the marches were held in "an orderly fashion," as police strived to keep the two groups apart, adding that no-one was arrested or taken into custody.
Smaller Pegida rallies were also held in the Danish cities of Arhus and Esbjerg and an estimated 70 people turned up for an anti-Islam demonstration near the City Hall in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
A counter demonstration there drew 200 protesters.
In Spain, a group using the Pegida name and a small far-right group called Alianza Nacional have been trying to organise a protest march in front of Madrid's largest mosque.
But the regional office of the Spanish interior ministry banned the latest request for a protest this Friday, saying such a march "could pose a serious risk to public security".