Together Against Islam: The Cooperation Between Pegida Dresden and the Czech Anti-Islam Movement and Th e Czech Anti-Islam Movement
Abstract
The article deals with the cooperation between the Czech anti-Islam movement and the German Pegida movement as a case of coalition building in social movements. The article is based on the results of research conducted by the author from October 2015 to November 2016 using combined methods of participant observation, semi-structured and structured interviews and document analysis.
The text describes the development of the relationship between several Czech anti-Islam organizations and Pegida Dresden, focusing mainly on the cooperation between the Czech "Blok proti islámu" (BPI, Block Against Islam) and the organizational team of Pegida Dresden. The author explains the emergence and success of the cooperation between BPI and Pegida Dresden as a result of three factors facilitating coalition-building in social movements, which were described by previous studies on this topic (e.g., Staggenborg, 1986; Van Dyke, McCammon (eds.), 2010).
These factors are the presence of a commonly perceived threat, a lack of ideological disputes and abundance of resources accompanied with the benefits of resource-sharing at the same time. Finally, the author offers an explanation for the final break-up of the cooperation, in which social ties among activist played a decisive role.