Christian Science Monitor on protests in Afghanistan

Another example of there being far more than meets the eye to violent protests over the cartoons.

Mounting concern over Afghanistan | csmonitor.com:

Cartoon protests are part of an impatience with the problems of drugs, jobs, corruption.
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The cartoon protests of the past week – which have been the deadliest in the Islamic world – are largely a barometer of domestic frustrations. In the streets of Kabul, Laghman, Maimana, and Bagram, protesters turned their anger on the US, the West, and "the dog-washers" – a derisive term for the expatriate Afghan technocrats who have returned to top posts in the government.

Protests are not uncommon in Afghanistan, but it takes a certain threshold of anger for protests to turn violent, which these did, leaving 11 Afghans dead. If conditions were good or improving – if the fundamental factors of food, shelter, and income were being met – then the protest over a few cartoons would have faded quickly here, say analysts.