German President Joachim Gauck told the country's Muslim community today that "we are all Germany" at a rally to condemn the Paris jihadist attacks and take a stand against rising Islamophobia.
About 10,000 citizens, religious leaders and politicians, among them Chancellor Angela Merkel, joined the event, which started with a wreath-laying ceremony at the French embassy and an imam reciting Koranic verses condemning the taking of life.
Gauck used his speech to send a message of reassurance to Germany's four-million-strong Muslim community, a day after a record 25,000 people joined a protest march by a populist anti-Islamic movement.
"We are all Germany," he said.
"We, democrats with our different political, cultural and religious backgrounds; we, who respect and need each other; we, who want to live life... In unity, justice and freedom," Gauck said in his speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
"The vast majority of Muslims feel they belong to our open society... Germany has become more diverse through immigration -- religiously, culturally and mentally."
"Our answer to the fundamentalism of the Islamist perpetrators of violence is democracy, respect for the law, respect for each other, respect for human dignity. This is our way of life!"
Merkel -- who this week stressed that "Islam is part of Germany" -- said earlier Tuesday that "hatred, racism and extremism have no place in this country... We are a country based on democracy, tolerance and openness to the world."
Tuesday's vigil and rally was organised by the Central Council of Muslims under the banner "Let's be there for each other. Terror: not in our name!"
"Today we all want to express our solidarity with the French people," its chairman Aiman Mazyek said in his opening address. "The terrorists did not win and terrorists won't win in future.
