3 April 2008

KABUL - About 70 Afghan women burned the Dutch and Danish flags during a demonstration on Wednesday in the capital against an anti-Islam film and the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

The women chanted slogans against the two countries during the protest outside the Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul. Most wore the all-covering blue burqa.

The women called on Danish and Dutch troops to leave Afghanistan and urged the Afghan government to shut down their embassies and cut diplomatic relations with the two countries.

The protesters were angered by the release last week of a 15-minute film by a Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, and the recent reprinting in Denmark of a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

The film ''Fitna'' - Arabic for ordeal - portrays Islam as targeting Western democracy with violence and has prompted denunciations in Muslim capitals and street protests in the Islamic world.

The film urges Muslims ''to tear out the hateful verses from the Quran,'' the Islamic holy book.

The Dutch defence ministry, meanwhile, said there was no indication that a roadside bomb that wounded three Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday was planted in retaliation for Wilders' movie.

The attack, which cost one soldier both legs, was ''unfortunately not unusual'' in nature, ministry spokesman Detlev Simons said.

The Site Intelligence Group said a statement posted on Web sites used by militants claimed the attack was retribution for Wilders' film.

[AP / Expatica]