Politically Incorrect was founded in 2004, soon after the re-election of George W. Bush, by a German teacher named Stefan Herre "to do something against Anti-Americanism"; its popularity surged in the wake of the Muhammad cartoons controversy the following year. It is one of the most successful German blogs, receiving several tens of thousand visitors each day and ranking among the thousand biggest German websites in terms of traffic. The site ranked ninth in March 2013 among German blogs in terms of public resonance in virtual social networks. The blog is interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments within a certain time limit.
Reception
The blog has been widely criticized by German media for inciting Islamophobia and equating Islam as a whole with Islamic extremism. Various German newspapers have in turn been accused of waging a "media campaign" against the website despite polls showing the concern of German people over the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. The blog's internet shop sells items with the slogan "Islamophobic and proud of it". Herre says his Islamophobia is without shame: "Phobia is fear, and I'm afraid of Islam." The SPD politician Sebastian Edathy, a spokesman for the party on interior affairs, views Politically Incorrect as a vehicle of right-wing populist agitation. It is not observed, however, by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution which sees it as differing from right-wing extremism in its support of a democratic order and basic rights, as well as its pro-Israel stance. Even so, the Munichlocal group which cooperates with the German Freedom Party is monitored by the Bavarian branch of the office since April 2013. The move has been criticized as an attempt at curtailing speech on Islam and possibly politically motivated on the part of the ruling CSU which competes with the Freedom Party for the conservative vote in the state. Following the decision by the Bavarian office, Hans-Georg Maaßen, the president of the Federal Office, reiterated its position that the blog's activities are covered by the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. In the context of several parliamentary inquiries initiated between 2011 and 2013 by the Left Party, the German government stated its view that "the overwhelming majority of PI entries made no use of classical right-wing extremist argumentation patterns, but rather was to be situated within the Islam-critical spectrum", or it gave similar answers to the same effect. The launching of the series of audits by the Left Party which itself is under surveillance of the Verfassungsschutz has been interpreted by Frontpage Magazine as a means to intimidate Islam's critiques by the far left.
