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'Orchestrated'

Myers said at the Pentagon briefing Thursday that according to U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, the Jalalabad protests had more to do with the political situation on the ground than anger about the report.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a U.S. ally, has also suggested that foreign elements and "enemies of peace" were responsible for the violent rioting.

Some regional observers appear to agree that the Koran issue was merely a spark that ignited a highly-flammable situation - in Afghanistan, at least.

"They are fed up with the United States and they just needed a spark to vent their feelings," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist considered an authority on the Pakistan-Afghan tribal areas.

South Asian political and security analyst Bahukutumbi Raman said the protests in Afghanistan were not spontaneous.

"They had been well-prepared, and were well-organized and well-orchestrated. Groups of students went from town to town instigating the local students to take to the streets."

Raman, who is director of the Institute For Topical Studies in the Indian city of Chennai, also reported that many members of the police and army appeared to have sympathized with the protestors.

He cited "reliable Afghan sources" as saying the demonstrations had been organized by a growing global movement called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami.

Raman describes Hizb ut-Tahrir as a veteran group with a secretive leadership and structure, which shares al-Qaeda's goal of an Islamic caliphate under Islamic law, but focuses on mass agitation rather than acts of terrorism.

The movement emphasized the importance of clandestine penetration of security forces, he said. The violence in Afghanistan illustrated "the extent of its penetration not only in the student community, but also in the Afghan security forces."

Hizb ut-Tahrir (Islamic Party of Liberation) was founded in the then Jordanian-occupied East Jerusalem in the early 1950s and has spread across Europe and Asia, with a particularly strong foothold in the Central Asian Republics.

Anger spreads

Beyond Afghanistan, reaction has been instigated by radical rhetoric and fiery sermons, while calls for calm have been largely absent.

In Pakistan, an influential six-party alliance of Islamic groups, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said it has contacted Muslim leaders around the world, organizing a global day of protest on May 27.

MMA president said Qazi Hussain Ahmed told a media conference he had been in touch with several dozen leaders in the U.S., Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and elsewhere.

"It is time to unite the Muslim world against any such conspiracy against them," he said, adding that since the desecration claim had been published in Newsweek "there is no doubt about the truth of its happening."

On Friday, Pakistani Muslims chanting "Death to America" demonstrated in Karachi, Lahore and the capital, Islamabad, while American and Israeli flags were burnt by several thousand Palestinians protesting after Friday prayers in the northern Gaza Strip.

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