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'Afghan Star' shows other side of war-torn nation

"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."

Saad Mohseni, founder of Tolo TV

In a well-guarded hotel on top of a high hill, a lively audience of Afghans and US 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.

Only a couple hundred meters down the hill, thousands of Afghans demonstrated on Friday against the publication of Prophet Mohammed 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 US ambassador to the UN under former US 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 US 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 Senator John McCain and Democrat senators 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 said in the hotel lobby.

"The war in Afghanistan is going to go on longer than the war in Iraq, at a lower intensity," he said.

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 ballroom of the hotel, 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 -- including Hameed Sakhizada, a 21-year-old ethnic Hazara -- together received more than 300,000 text message votes.

A female singer from the Pashtun tribe, was voted out last week, finishing in third place.

She had drawn criticism from 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 that the show is helping to 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 the show.

The country's population is about 30 million.
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