Afghans protest Danish cartoons, Koran film
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) – About 1,000 Afghans, incensed by the republication of Prophet Mohammad’s caricatures in a Danish paper, marched in a northern city on Sunday demanding withdrawal of Danish and Dutch troops from the country.
The protesters, mostly religious clerics in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, also condemned plans by a right-wing Dutch politician to broadcast a film on the Koran.
Afghanistan’s religious affairs ministry has called the reprinting of Prophet Mohammad’s cartoons as an attack against Islam. Several other Islamic countries have demanded that the film by the Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders must not be released.
The cartoons were first printed in Danish papers in 2005 and sparked violent protests across the Muslim world and reprinted by several other Western publications in 2006 in which dozens of people, some in Afghanistan, were killed.
“We demand the…withdrawal of Danish and Dutch soldiers from Afghanistan”, said Mawlavi Shoaib, a religious figure and one of the organizers.
“Down with Denmark and Netherlands. We will not let anyone insult the prophet and the Koran. We urge the Muslim community to voice their concerns” chanted the protesters.
The Dutch and Danish troops serve under NATO’s command in Afghanistan.
Mawlavi Hakim, one of the protest organizers said :”It is intolerable. The perpetrators should be punished and questioned.”
The protestors warned they would launch bigger demonstrations, unless their demands over the expulsion of Dutch and Danish forces were met by the Afghan government.