Analyst: Taliban will exploit Dutch film

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The Taliban are exploiting popular anger in Afghanistan about a forthcoming Dutch film attacking the Koran, leading to security fears for Dutch troops there.

In an analysis from a new Afghan think tank, the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, Executive Director Waliullah Rahmani also says the insurgents will use the issue to leverage their way into the political dialogue.

"The Taliban seem eager to exploit the religious sentiments of the Afghan people," he writes, noting "mass protests in the major cities of Afghanistan" earlier this month against the forthcoming film, "Fitna" -- "Ordeal" in Arabic. The director, controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilder, has compared the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The protestors called for the severing of relations with the Dutch and Danish governments and the withdrawal of peacekeeping troops from both those countries.

The demonstrations were also directed against the republication of the so-called Mohammed cartoons by Danish papers. Criticizing the Koran and depicting the Prophet Mohammed are both regarded as blasphemous by Muslims.

"It is the first time since the fall of the Taliban that popular demands have been issued for the withdrawal of foreign troops," writes Rahmani, noting, "These demands are also the only precondition of the Taliban for peace talks."

"There appears to be an increased danger for Danish and Dutch troops stationed in southern Afghanistan, an unstable region controlled partly by the Taliban and its followers," he concludes.