Middle East protests: ultras settle scores, Islamists seek to score points

Ultras protest in front of the US embassy (Source: STR, Ap/getty / 2012 AFP)

By James M. Dorsey

The anti-American protests spreading across the Middle East and North Africa may be fuelled by an obscure anti-Muslim American film but are really about domestic score settling and political maneuvering.

At the bottom line, the message from this week’s riots tha…