Jakarta – Thousands of Muslims took to the streets of the Indonesian capital and marched towards the US embassy, denouncing Washington as the enemy of Islam and calling on Jakarta to embrace Sharia law.

More than 6,000 members of the hard-line Hizbut Tahrir rallied to the central Monas square, opposite the US embassy to protest alleged injustices against their religion across the world, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"US: enemy of the world," stated one of the many anti-US placards carried by the protestors, including veiled women and their children. "Down, Down (with) the USA. Rise, Rise (with) the Caliphate" said others. "US, get out of Iraq," yelled a speaker near the embassy compound. Out front two water cannons were deployed.

Lingering resentment against controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, oil politics and the treatment of Muslims held by US forces helped fuel the protests which were called by Hizbut Tahrir to mark the anniversary of the fall of the last caliphate.

Speakers, peppered speeches with shouts of Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest), calling on Muslims of the world to unite and the Indonesian government to shed secularism and embrace Islamic sharia law.

Hizbut Tahrir insists sharia and an Islamic caliphate are answers to the problems afflicting the Islamic world, including in Indonesia, and the divisions splintering it with the West.

The last caliphate, an urbane scholar named Abdulmecid Efendi was ousted in 1924 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. Caliphs are recognised as direct successors of the prophet Mohammad and messengers of god, while a calphate is a caliph who rules a country directly.

Although noisy, the rally proceeded orderly, and protesters left the embassy after four hours, marching to a nearby parking lot where scores of buses then transported them home.

Similar rallies by Hizbut Tahrir members were reported in the Indonesian cities of Surabaya in East Java, Solo, Yogyakarta and Semarang in Central Java, Medan in North Sumatra and in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

In Surabaya, protestors numbered around 6,000 and gathered at Taman Bungkul, a downtown open field. the ElShinta radio reported. In the other cities, their number ranged between 100 and 2,000, it said.