The anti-immigrationist response to the CH attacks: "We warned you!"

German anti-Islam rally Monday to raise new tensions

The spin is hostile in the USA Today story, but the point is quite right.

The anti-immigrationists are pointing to the attack on CH as the very sort of thing that makes them oppose continued Muslim immigration.

The CH cartoonists and editorial leaders have proved themselves wrong and have made the case of their political enemies, the anti-immigrationists, that Islam in Europe is a menace that needs to be tamed.

Shortly after news broke of the deadly shootings in Paris, PEGIDA jumped on social media.

"Today the Islamists that PEGIDA has been warning you about for 12 weeks have showed you in France that they are not capable of democracy and that they see death and violence as the answer," PEGIDA posted on Facebook. 

"Will there have to be a tragedy in Germany?"

Now PEGIDA has dialed back that rhetoric, saying it doesn't take satisfaction in the attacks but instead wants to mourn the deaths of the editors, cartoonists, writers and two policemen, one of whom was Muslim.

"The brutal attacks in Paris show that we are in urgent need of a fresh and free European-wide general debate about freedom of speech and Islamism," said Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, a professor of Islamic studies at Bayreuth University who has marched in several PEGIDA demonstrations.

PEGIDA is not alone in rallying people against Islam after the terrorist attack.

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far right National Front party, said, "This attack must continue to prompt free speech in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. 

"We must not stay silent. 

"And we must say what happened. 

"This is a terrorist act committed in the name of radical Islamism."

Le Pen was not part of Sunday's massive rally in Paris, instead joining a separate march in Beaucaire in southern France, where her party holds the mayor's post.