An Eritrean Muslim man, 20, was stabbed to death in Dresden on Tuesday

A young Muslim man has been stabbed to death in Dresden, east Germany, in an attack which is feared to be connected to recent 'anti-Islamisation' marches in the city

Khaled Idris Bahray, 20, an Eritrean-born Muslim, was found stabbed to death in the early hours of Tuesday, Dresden prosecution office has said.

His body was discovered the day after 40,000 people joined a weekly march organised by an organisation called 'Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West' (PEGIDA).

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Rise: Up to 40,000 people attended a rally with the Anti-Islamic Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) movement in Dresden, on Monday

Mr Bahray had gone out to do some shopping on Monday night, and never returned home.

He was found dead outside his house on Tuesday morning, police say.

Dresden prosecution office has launched 'an extensive investigation' into the murder.

PEGIDA marches has become a weekly sight in Dresden in recent months, and up to 40,000 is said to have taken to the streets on Monday, the day of Mr Bahray's disappearance.

Thousands were seen waving German flags in the dark and chanting 'Luegenpresse' (Lying press), a Nazi term, and 'Wir sind das Volk' (We are the people).

Possible connection: Stabbing victim Khaled Idris Bahray, 20, an Eritrean-born Muslim, had left his house to go shopping on Monday, the same night as the PEGIDA march in Dresden

Growing numbers: A supporter of the PEGIDA movement in Berlin holds a sticker with a crossed mosque symbol while supporters gathered for a march in their first demonstration in the German capital this month

The record number of marchers were emboldened by the Islamist attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Co-founder Lutz Bachmann, 41, says his 'Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West' campaign, born on Facebook three months ago, represents the silent majority and has huge potential across Germany and Europe.

'This is the tip of the iceberg,' Bachmann, who has a criminal conviction for burglary, told Reuters in an interview.

While PEGIDA leaders deny they are racist and are careful to distinguish between Islamists and most of Germany's 4 million Muslims, slogans like 'No Sharia!' and 'In 2035 Germans will be a minority!' betray a hostility to foreigners.

At Monday's rally, Bachmann called on politicians to force immigrants to integrate.

'Every religion is welcome in Germany. But you can't try to influence German culture and life,' Kathrin Oertel, a PEGIDA co-founder, told Reuters.

To the 35,000 people who joined a state-organised protest against PEGIDA on Saturday in Dresden and about 100,000 across Germany on Monday, the movement is openly racist.

'They are using a fear of Islam to put chauvinism and racism on the street,' said Michael Nattke of Dresden's Culture Office.

Angela Merkel has condemned the movement using strong language calling its members racists 'with hatred in their hearts.'

The debate has exposed divisions among her conservative supporters on how to tackle rising immigration. A new protest party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is gaining ground as a result.

A protestor holds a poster showing German Chancellor Angela Merkel wearing a head scarf in front of the Reichtstags building and the writing 'Mrs Merkel here is the people' during the PEGIDA rally in Dresden

PEGIDA owes much of its success to the peculiarities of Dresden, a city destroyed by the Allies in 1945 and since painstakingly restored.

Mark Arenhoevel, a politics professor at Dresden's Technical University, says Dresden is less mixed than other cities. 'There is more xenophobia than in some other cities so there is big potential for mobilising support,' he said.

In Communist times, Dresden was known as 'Valley of the Clueless' because western media signals could not be picked up.

It has a tradition of holding some of Europe's biggest neo-Nazi marches on Feb. 13 to commemorate the firebombing of the city during the final months of World War Two.

Nattke estimates 2,000 neo-Nazis and right-wing soccer hooligans attend PEGIDA rallies, joining ordinary conservatives.

Bachmann has no intention of weeding out neo-Nazis.

'No one has 'I am a Nazi, I am a hooligan' written on their forehead,' Bachmann said. 'This is a public event and as the organiser I don't have the authority to refuse people.'

Added to a traditional conservatism, many people in Dresden and the surrounding state of Saxony are disillusioned with politics because the same party -- Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) -- has ruled the state since reunification 25 years ago.

'I'm not a Nazi but everyone who enjoys our hospitality must mix in and respect our culture,' said a sign held by Dresden resident Joerg Schultz, 45.

Xenophobia is also fed by the city's low number of immigrants and disproportionately small Muslim population.

A poll last week showed that about 70 percent of non-Muslim Germans in Saxony feel threatened by Muslims.

A sharp rise in the number of immigrants and asylum seekers has fuelled a debate in Germany, as in other European countries, with some politicians calling for tighter immigration rules.

Although its asylum laws are among the most liberal in the western world, Germany has never become a genuine melting pot of cultures.