The New Scotsman

Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan

IN A well-guarded hotel on top of a high hill, a lively audience of Afghans and American VIPs watched the season finale of Afghanistan's version of American Idol. Singers performed on a star-shaped stage while cutting-edge graphics flashed in the background.

Meanwhile, a couple of hundred yards down the hill, thousands of Afghans demonstrated against the reprinting of Prophet Mohammed drawings in Denmark.

They burned Dutch and Danish flags and an effigy representing Afghan Star, the country's most popular TV show. The two finalists – 19-year-old Rafi Naabzada, who went on to win the show, and 21-year-old runner-up Hameed Sakhizada – received more than 300,000 text message votes.

 A female singer from the most conservative Afghan tribe, the Pashtuns, was voted out last week. She had drawn the ire of clerics in Afghanistan, who said women should not be singing on TV.

Saad Mohseni, the founder of Tolo TV, which produces Afghan Star, said the show was watched by 11 million people – one-third of the country – and is helping to bring about social change. "Not just in music, but in the way people voted, the way they lined up in an orderly manner (outside the show] ... the way the losers are gracious. No-one is threatening violence. That's a huge change," he said.

The protesters held signs against Denmark, where newspapers recently reprinted drawings of Mohammed, and the Netherlands, where Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders plans to release a film criticising the Koran this month. Osama bin Laden, in an audiotape released last week, warned of a "severe" reaction to European publication of the cartoons.