In autumn 2014, a protest movement by the name of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (Pegida) appeared on the streets and squares in Germany. The image presented to the outside world led to the conclusion that it was a small-minded, blatantly Islamophobic and xenophobic mob publicly displaying their diffuse fears and resentments. Nevertheless, the participants, supporters and initiators of the protest rallies always denied any xenophobic motives. In fact, they thought of themselves as the avant-garde among the citizens, who had the courage to take justified criticism generally shared by the population to the street as a public protest. By scrutinizing these two views based on existing findings this essay examines the role of xenophobia and Islamophobia for the formation and development of Pegida.