The paper analyzes the movement "Pegida" in Germany as a socio-political phenomenon from different perspectives. Firstly, the movement is considered as an example of a new type of social movements, which demonstrates common traits with protest social movements "Arab Spring" and "Occupy Wall Street". Secondly, the paper analyses the causes of the movement "Pegida", namely internal and external conditions prevailing in Germany. Third, it identifies potential factors of mobilization of anti-Islamic movements, similar to "Pegida" in the future. "Pegida" represents a challenge for the German political system in the sense it ref lects the social protest against the governmental policy as well as the social division as a result of increasing socio-economic inequalities in Germany. Democratic development is impaired by the increasing extremist tendencies in society, as extremism denies a fundamental condition of a pluralistic society - the equality of all citizens. However, there is a challenge for other democratic systems, since the case of Germany is not unique. Anti-Islamic movement is testing today not only the German democracy. Analogues of "Pegida" have recently emerged in different European countries as well as in Australia. In this sense, the experience of Germany is of particular scientific interest.

PEGIDA Migration Terrorism Social networks Germany Refugees extremism Democracy Islamization Middle class "Occupy Wall Street" Dresden Protest social movement Islam Xenophobia

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