Reprinting cartoon sparks Afghan protests

HERAT, Afghanistan, March 8 (UPI) -- Thousands of Muslims in Afghanistan Saturday protested the reprinting of a political cartoon that sparked riots when initially published in Denmark.

CNN said the demonstrators in the western Afghan city of Herat were reacting after several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial caricature of the Prophet Muhammad last month.

The newspapers republished the controversial cartoon in protest after Danish authorities arrested several people allegedly plotting to kill the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard.

"Death to enemies of Islam," demonstrators reportedly shouted in their native Dari language. "Death to Denmark and Holland and the insulters of Islam."

Faqir Ahmad Herawi, a scholar who helped organize the protest, told CNN the protesters gathered "to express our anger against this inhuman act of the Danish paper that insulted our Holy Prophet."

The drawing was first" published in September 2005 in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.