By Paul L. Williams
June 10, 2010
Welcome to American occupied Afghanistan and the latest results of the war on terror.
Thousands of students in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday burned an effigy of the pope while protesting against attempts by Christian denominations to spread the gospel and to convert Muslims to Christianity.
At the same time, the Afghan government, under President Hamid Karzai, suspended operations of US-based World Church Service and Norwegian Church Aid after a local television station accused the groups of proselytism, which is a crime in the conservative Muslim country.
Students in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif shouted “Death to America” and set ablaze an effigy of Pope Benedict XVI, in the first public reaction to the allegations. “We are demonstrating to express our disgust towards the activities of Christians trying to convert Afghanis,” Abdul Karim, an Afghan student, told the press.
