'Deeply Conservative' Afghans Chant 'Death to Denmark'

Throw in "death" to America, the Jews, and the Netherlands for good measure.

Just your average Friday seethefest in the conservative Muslim world.

Some 5,000 Afghans chanted "death to Denmark" and "death to the Netherlands" in Kabul on Friday, protesting against the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers and a Dutch film on the Koran.

Sporadic demonstrations have sprung up across the deeply conservative country in recent weeks against the cartoons and the film with protesters demanding Danish and Dutch troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan and their embassies shut down.

Protesters gathered around a mosque in the west of the Afghan capital after Friday prayers chanting "death to Denmark", "death to the Netherlands, "death to America" and "death to Jews".

Demonstrators burned Danish and Dutch flags and also an effigy of Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders, who is due to release a film thought to be critical of the Koran later this month. Wilders has given few details of the film, but in the past he has called Islam's holy text a "fascist" book that "incites violence".