German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed for religious tolerance on Thursday as results of a survey showed more Germans viewed Islam as a threat.

In a poll taken by Bertelsmann Foundation a couple of weeks before Islamist attackers killed 12 people in Paris, six out of ten (61 percent) non-Muslim Germans thought Islam had no place in their country. More than half (57 percent) felt Islam posed a threat, four percentage points higher than the results in 2012.

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Four in ten (40 percent) of those surveyed felt alienated in their own home country because of the Muslim presence, while one in four (24 percent) thought Muslims should be stopped from living in Germany.

Merkel, who found the Paris attack "despicable," asked the German public to remain calm, describing ties with the vast majority of Muslims in Germany as very good.

Around four million of 80 million people in Germany are Muslims, most of them with Turkish origin.

The independent research institute TNS Emnid took the survey in November among 937 non-Muslim Germans. The poll results were released in the middle of an intense national debate over Germany's immigration policies.

Anti-migrant marches have rocked the eastern city of Dresden, which started with a few participants in October but they have grown in number in December, with about 18,000 people taking part each week.

Right-wing populist group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA) organized the protests. The group said on its Facebook page that the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in Paris confirmed its fears.

The German chancellor appealed to Germans in her annual New Year's Eve address to steer clear of the marches - which Merkel said promoted "hatred" - and to support demonstrators, which had more than PEGIDA protesters in recent weeks at gatherings across the country.

Meanwhile, German Muslim groups are preparing for protests against terrorists with secular groups on a mystery date, and urged Muslim teachers to condemn the Paris attack at Friday prayers this week. 

Tagsangela merkel, Muslims in the West, German Muslims, Charlie Hebdo, Je Suis Charlie Hebdo, Germany