By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Thousands turned out Saturday in an effort to block a rally organized by a right-wing German nationalist group that opposes plans to build a new mosque in Cologne.
Police said around 3,000 officers would be stationed throughout the ethnically diverse city in an effort to keep the peace between the two groups.
The demonstration against the plan to build a large, domed mosque - complete with two 55-meter-tall (177-foot-tall) minarets - in the city's heavily immigrant Ehrenfeld district was organized by the Pro-Cologne group as part of a three-day conference decrying what it calls the city's "Islamification."
Opening events Friday were severely hampered when hundreds of largely peaceful protesters managed to prevent the group's leaders from holding a news conference in a municipal building, forcing Pro-Cologne to seek refuge on a rental boat cruising the Rhine River. Eight people were arrested for throwing stones and paint balls at the boat.
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