Lutz Bachmann, the man that many see as the driving force behind the anti-Islam street protests in Germany, was basically an unknown until just a few months ago. Bachmann is a trained cook who has a criminal record, and he is the head of the group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident. In the last few months this group has gained a foothold and helped to mobilize thousands of people to protest the religion in the streets. The anti Islamic group was first started last October after the city of Hamburg was the spot of violent altercations between radical Muslims and Kurds. Initially the weekly marches organized by the protest group only drew about 500 people, but the most recent march last Monday attracted more than 18,000 supporters.
Some claim that Lutz Bachmann has ties to far right groups, and Neo Nazis and supremacists have been spotted among the marchers in the anti-Islam street protests, but they are widely outnumbered by ordinary people who have a number of grievances against Islamic extremists. The group run by Lutz Bachmann advocates tolerance for Muslims who integrate into their new countries but takes a hardline stance against economic refugees and those with violent and misguided ideals. Bachmann has refused all requests for an interview and can only be contacted through his Facebook posts, perhaps in an attempt to keep his location hidden so that radical extremists can not target him for attack. In 1998 Lutz was convicted on charges of theft and burglary, and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.