Kang said the group, a non-governmental organization called the Institute of Asian Culture & Development, had a Christian background but was not trying to win converts.

Rather, its members began entering the country a month ago to provide computer and business training, medical and dental care and arrange sports activities in five cities, he said.

A now-canceled Peace Festival at the main stadium in Kabul, intended to mark the group's fifth year of volunteer work in Afghanistan, was to culminate the visit on Aug. 5-7, he said.

In western Herat province, authorities put about 200 Koreans on a bus and deported them to Uzbekistan on Wednesday, a top provincial official said.

The Koreans had gone from house to house in groups of two or three, and "it was rumored among the people they have plans to convert the people to Christianity," said Faiaz Mhrain, the governor's chief of staff.

Kang confirmed the Koreans were deported from Herat but said they were sent to Iran.

A Herat police official said he escorted the Koreans to historic sites under tight security and they performed a religious ceremony. "One did a religious reading while another played music," said Maser Ahmad Paykar.

When asked how he knew the ceremony was religious, he said, "I don't know. It was in Korean. It was kind of religious."

In the country's north, a member of the cleric council in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Adbul Hadey, said 3,000 people gathered in the city's main mosque to demand the South Koreans be thrown out of the province.

Kang dismissed all the accusations as false rumors, but conceded his group may have sung songs among themselves in their own language.

He also said Interior Ministry officials told him the group was being deported for their own protection and not due to security fears.

As opposed to the U.S. in Afghanistan there is a real war against christianity, not like the imaginary war on christianity we supposedly have here.

Because Islam is a religion that doesnt allow other religions, I would have to say that it is incompatible with democracy. Being tolorant of other religions I feel is a prerequisite for being a democracy. That is why I dont think afganistan will be a sucess. I hope it will be, but I dont know.

Gee, that's odd. I thought for sure there'd be a posting by Niceville on a thread with this title.

Doc, I'm sure he's making room in his singlewide for them as we speak.
Like Rummy said, when you half-assedly go to war on the cheap, you end up with the government you get, not the one you want.

Being tolerant of "religion" is not the hallmark of democracy or freedom. Man kind has every right to expose them for the fraud they are, wether it's christianity, judaism or islam.

Every one of these cults is engaged in terror. Does not matter if it is through law, economics or violence, persecution or oppression, it is terror.

You are either for the human race without the condition of your gods' and cults, or you're against the human race, hiding behind the veil of these terror apparatus.

You deserve the horror that you have created, condemning your own children to it's evil.

What are we doing, supporting a government that represses religion? I'd love to hear Bush's rationalization on this one.