Updated

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck are taking part in a rally for tolerance and against growing anti-Islam protests in Germany.

The event organized by Muslim groups will take place Tuesday evening near Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.

It is intended as a response to the growing anti-Islam protests that have been taking place weekly in the eastern city of Dresden. On Monday, some 25,000 people took part in a rally there organized by the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA.

Merkel and Gauck have spoken out against PEGIDA, accusing it of seeking to divide German society and capitalizing on people's fears.

Germany has some 4 million Muslim residents, equivalent to about 5 percent of the population of 80 million.