Protests have been building all week in Afghanistan over the US church’s plan Thousands of protesters have held anti-American rallies in provinces across Afghanistan over plans by a US church to burn copies of the Koran.
Demonstrators burned a US flag and chanted “Death to the Christians”.
Rallies were held in the north-eastern provinces of Kunar, Badakhshan and Nangarhar; Parwan, just north of the capital Kabul; and southern Nimruz.
President Hamid Karzai said the Florida church’s plan – now on hold – had been an insult Islam’s followers.
Many of Friday’s protests were held after worshippers emerged from mosques, following Eid prayers marking the end of Ramadan.
In Badakhshan province alone, a crowd estimated by a governor’s spokesman to number 10,000 poured on to the streets chanting anti-US slogans, reports news agency Reuters.
Terry Jones, pastor of the previously little-known Dove World Outreach Center in the US state of Florida, announced on Thursday that he was putting on hold his plan for an “International Burn a Koran Day”.
In an Eid message, President Karzai said: “We have heard that in the US, a pastor has decided to insult Korans. Now although we have heard that they are not doing this, we tell them they should not even think of it.”
“By burning the Koran they cannot harm it. The Koran is in the hearts and minds of one-and-a-half billion people. Insulting the Koran is an insult to nations.”
The US military commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, warned earlier this week that the stunt would endanger lives, while President Barack Obama said it would be a “recruitment bonanza” for al-Qaeda.
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