Hundreds of Afghan protesters burned the Dutch and Danish flags on Wednesday and demanded that their troops leave Afghanistan in the latest outcry against the reprinting of a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in Denmark and an upcoming Dutch film criticizing the Quran.
The United Nations, meanwhile, called for a peaceful dialogue to overcome the animosity caused by the cartoon and film.
More than 300 people gathered in Pul-i-Alam, the capital of central Logar province, for a demonstration organized by students, deputy provincial police chief Abdul Majid Latifi said.
Local elders and villagers joined the protest, burning the Danish and Dutch flags and urging President Hamid Karzai to issue a statement of condemnation, said Mohammad Shafiq Popal, head of the Logar youth and students association.
"We demand that the government kick the Dutch and Danish troops out of Afghanistan because they are the puppets of Christianity," Popal said.
In Nangarhar province, about 20 local elected officials protested and also demanded the removal of the two countries' forces from Afghanistan.
Last month in a gesture of solidarity, Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad after Danish police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist, whose drawing was one of 12 cartoons that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world in 2006.
The reprinting triggered another wave of protests in Islamic countries in recent weeks.
The protesters were also angered by an upcoming short film by right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders that reportedly portrays the Quran as a "fascist book."
Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, pressed for calm in resolving the misunderstanding.
"We believe in the importance of overcoming misunderstandings and animosities between people of different beliefs and cultural traditions through peaceful dialogue and mutual respect," Siddique told reporters in Kabul.
"It is vital that we recognize that the actions of one cartoonist and one filmmaker do not characterize or reflect the overarching nature of international engagement with Afghanistan and its government," Siddique said.
Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where criticism of Muhammad and the Quran is a serious crime that carries the death sentence.
On Tuesday, more than 200 Afghan lawmakers gathered at the parliament, shouting "Death to the enemies of Islam" and urging the Danish and Dutch governments to prevent blasphemy against Islam.
On Sunday, clerics and Islamic students burned the Danish and Dutch flags in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and demanded that the government shut the two countries' embassies in Kabul.
In neighboring Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said there was a difference "between freedom of expression and license to insult."
"Bigoted and blasphemous acts such as the Danish cartoons and Wilders' film are tantamount to propagating politics of hate and promoting xenophobia in Europe," Sadiq said at a weekly briefing.
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