Demonstrations Gravers Pedersen has been instrumental in forming the street-based activist parts of the
counter-jihad movement since he founded Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD) in 2005. He founded the organisation in response to seeing television images of Muslims burning the Danish flag as part of to the
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. He was formerly a member of the anti-immigration policy-focused Danish Association, but founded SIAD as he wanted more action. With SIAD, he helped organise the first international counter-jihad conference in
Copenhagen in 2007 along with the
Center for Vigilant Freedom (CVF). Gravers Pedersen founded Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) following the 2007 conference together with English activist
Stephen Gash. In 2010, he helped form Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) with the bloggers
Pamela Geller and
Robert Spencer. He participated in staging a rally and arranging a counter-jihad demonstration along with the
English Defence League (EDL), including
Tommy Robinson, and numerous other international activists in
Aarhus in March 2012. In August 2012, he participated in an international counter-jihad rally in
Stockholm along with Robinson, the EDL, Geller, Spencer, and the newly founded Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) among others. Gravers Pedersen said in 2013, that due to his criticism of Islam, he has to live on a secret address, and that he has to have bodyguards when appearing in public.
Contesting elections Gravers Pedersen contested the municipal election in Aalborg in 2005, in which SIAD received a total of 1,172 votes. He attempted to run for a seat in the Danish parliament in 2009 and in 2012. ==References==