Pegida, which stands for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West", is a social movement that has been calling for Monday marches in the past few weeks, with today's demonstration being the ninth to take place in the group's home city of Dresden. The protest is set to kick off at 6 p.m. Berlin time (17:30 GMT) in Skatepark Lingnerallee.
Demonstrators have updated the old tradition of "Monday marches" held in Eastern Germany before 1989 to protest against the Communist regime. The revamped rally laced with anti-Islam rhetoric is now gaining momentum across the country, with spin-offs springing up in other cities across Germany such as Bonn and Dusseldorf.
German politicians have reacted by bashing the spreading anti-Islamic movement as "repulsive and abhorrent," according to the country's Justice Minister Heiko Maas cited by the Suddeutschen Zeitung as saying Monday.
The minister described the protest as a "shame for Germany," a nation which has been the most refugee friendly of all EU nations, as suggested by the data obtained by a representative of UN human rights commission's refugee agency in Berlin. Most of the refugees come from conflict-hit Muslim countries.
