Monday, March 3, 2008

A Good Ol' Flag-Burning

This won't help the shaky public support here for the mission in Afghanistan.
NATO's secretary general said he was concerned about his troops after the protests against [Geert Wilder's] film in Afghanistan.

"If the [troops] find themselves in the line of fire because of the film, then I am worried about it and I am expressing that concern," he said in a television interview.

'Kick out forces'

On Sunday, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to protest against the film.

Demonstrators burned Dutch flags, and called for the withdrawal of Dutch troops from the Nato force.

The demonstrators say they will step up their protests unless the Afghan government expels the troops.

The protesters also criticised the recent republication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in several Danish newspapers, and called for the withdrawal of Danish troops.

"We don't want our government to have any diplomatic relations with these two countries," Maulawi Abdul Hadi, one of the protesters, told the Associated Press news agency.

"We don't want Danish and Dutch troops in Afghanistan. They should be kicked out of the Nato forces here."

Mr Wilders has said he expects his 15-minute work will be shown in the Netherlands in March and released on the internet.

Dutch authorities have told him he may have to leave the country for his own safety amid reports of death threats.

There have also been protests carried out in Pakistan and Iran. Protests such as these and the ones over the Danish cartoons are often carefully staged publicity events by radical clerics and enjoy much less popular support than it would seem by the media coverage of it. It would do everyone good if the media would take more of an interest in taking quotes and opinions from those Muslims who aren't screaming at the top of their lungs.

That said, Wilders certainly has good reason to assume attempts on his life will be made here.

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