The Associated Press

Saturday, March 22, 2008

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, only a couple hundred meters (yards) down that hill, thousands of Afghans demonstrated Friday against the publication of Prophet Mohammad drawings in Denmark, yelling "Down with Denmark" and "Death to America."

The protesters burned flags of the Netherlands and Denmark and an effigy of a Dutch filmmaker and lawmaker.

Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, was among the VIPs watching the filming of "Afghan Star." But because of the protests outside, he couldn't leave the hotel when he had planned to. He took note of the irony.

"I love it, fabulous. Better than 'American Idol,'" Holbrooke said of the show. "It shows the two Afghanistans. The riots down there and the show up here."

Holbrooke skewered the way President George W. Bush's administration has handled the Afghan conflict, saying Washington "neglected" the country "and now we're playing catch-up."

He said any of the three remaining candidates for president — Republican John McCain and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — would do better in Afghanistan than Bush.

"All three candidates will put more emphasis on it than President Bush," Holbrooke told The Associated Press in the hotel lobby. "The war in Afghanistan is going to go on longer than the war in Iraq, at a lower intensity."

But Holbrooke, a supporter and adviser to Hillary Clinton, said the Democratic candidates would phase out of Iraq faster than McCain and put more resources into Afghanistan. He said Clinton would like to increase support for agricultural programs to help create jobs in the country.

Inside the hotel's ballroom, Rafi Naabzada, a 19-year-old ethnic Tajik, was voted the winner of the third season of "Afghan Star," the country's most popular TV show. The two finalists - the other was Hameed Sakhizada, a 21-year-old ethnic Hazara -  together received more than 300,000 text message votes.

A female singer from the most conservative Afghan tribe, the Pashtuns, was voted out last week, finishing in third place. She had drawn the ire of conservative 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 is helping bring about social change in Afghanistan.

"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," Mohseni said.

He estimates that 11 million Afghans watch "Afghan Star." The country's population is around 30 million.

At the bottom of the hill, thousands of Afghans chanted and held signs against Denmark, where newspapers recently reprinted drawings of the Prophet Mohammad, and the Netherlands, where Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders plans to release a film criticizing the Quran this month.

"We want to say to America and the European Union, this is not freedom of speech. It's barbaric, and they must stop the film's release," a cleric told the crowd.

The cleric also called for Danish troops in Afghanistan to leave. Denmark has 600 troops in Afghanistan serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in an audiotape released this week, warned of a "severe" reaction to European publication of the cartoons. His message raised concerns al-Qaida was plotting new attacks in Europe.