Mar 5, 2008, 14:55 GMT
Kabul - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Wednesday that the reprinting of a cartoon in Danish paper depicting Prophet Mohammed, was 'unacceptable and intolerable' for Afghanistan.
'We express our deepest concern regarding the reprint of cartoons that are insulting to the greatest prophet of Islam,' Spanta told a press conference in Kabul his recent trip to some European countries including Denmark.
His comments came a day after Afghan members of the parliament also condemned the reprint of cartoons and asked the Afghan government to summon the Danish envoy to Afghanistan to express the Afghan people's anger.
'For Afghanistan it is intolerable and unacceptable that the religious belief and faith of one billion people is subjected to disrespect,' Spanta said, adding that 'those who print these kinds of insulting cartoons, they are pioneers in cultural clashes, ... and they are against peace and friendship of human beings.'
Thousands of people also took to street Wednesday in Puli Alam, the capital of southern Logar province, chanting slogans against the Danish paper and an upcoming film in the Netherlands criticizing Islam's holy book.
The protesters also demanded the Afghan government expel Dutch and Danish soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as part of NATO-led peacekeeping forces.
There are over 1,600 Dutch soldiers in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, and nearly 800 Danish soldiers are also in Afghanistan, most stationed in neighbouring Helmand province, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most active.
Similar demonstrations were also reported around the country.
The first publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006 sparked widespread condemnations and demonstrations throughout the Islamic world. Several people were killed in bloody demonstrations in Afghanistan, after the Afghan police opened fire at protesters.
A leading Danish newspaper reprinted the cartoons after the Danish police discovered a plot to kill the artist.
Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic country that regards disrespect to the Prophet Mohammed and the Koran as blasphemy, the punishment for which is death.
'We can't justify these acts in the name of freedom of speech,' Spanta said.
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