across the Arab world, sparking protests in drawings as well, showing Muhammad France Soir republished the caricatures Child's tale led to clash of the Middle East, and plunging Denmark with the face of a pig; a dog sodomising a under the defiant headline: "Yes, We Have cultures into one of the most serious diplomatic praying Muslim; and Muhammad as a the Right to Caricature God" - a gesture that Luke Harding, The Guardian - 4/2/2006 crises in its history. paedophile. "This was pure disinformation. led to the sacking of the paper's editor the We never published them," Lund next day. Separately, Germany's Die Welt It began innocuously enough. Last year the Death threats complained. But the campaign worked. slapped the turban-bomb Muhammad Danish writer Kare Bluitgen had been At first, though, the outrage was local. Outwardly the row appeared to be calming cartoon on its front page. searching for someone who could illustrate Several thousand Danish Muslims protested. down. But in Muslim cyber-chatrooms, on his children's book about the life of the Three of the cartoonists received death blogs, and across the internet, outrage was "It's the core of our culture that the most prophet Muhammad. It soon became clear, threats; security guards were posted outside building fast. sacred things can be subjected to criticism, however, that nobody wanted the job, the newspaper's offices in Copenhagen and laughter and satire," Roger Köppel, Die through fear of antagonising Muslim Arhus. From Denmark, the pictures were being Welt's editor-in-chief, told the Guardian. feelings about images of Muhammad. pinged by SMS from Kuwait to Palestine. The Arab world was guilty of "hypocrisy", "Nobody saw this coming," Jan Lund, the Then last week came the diplomatic the paper said. Other newspapers in Italy, One artist turned down the commission on paper's foreign editor admitted yesterday. explosion. Saudi Arabia recalled its Spain and Switzerland - though not Britain the grounds that he didn't want to suffer the "We didn't think the cartoons had crossed ambassador from Denmark for - followed suit. The consequences were same grisly fate as Theo van Gogh, the any line. Some people thought it was a consultations, Libya shut its embassy. most vivid in the West Bank where dozens Dutch film-maker stabbed to death by an good idea to publish, others didn't." He of masked Palestinian gunmen stormed the Islamist fanatic. Two others also declined. added: "We are the biggest newspaper in Boycott EU's building in the Gaza strip, standing on "They were worried," Mr Bluitgen said, Denmark. We have always been the enfant At the same time a boycott of Danish goods the roof next to the EU's starry blue flag. adding: "Eventually someone agreed to do terrible of the Danish press. Our cartoonists began across the Middle East, with The gunmen also seized a 21-year-old it anonymously." have made fun of politicians, Jesus and the protesters in Bahrain burning Danish German from a Nablus hotel. He was later Virgin Mary." cheese. A Danish milk factory in Riyadh released. Mr Bluitgen's trouble prompted several was forced to close; there were Danish newspapers, including the best- What should have remained a parochial demonstrations in Baghdad; strikes in There were ominous reverberations too in selling Jyllands-Posten (Jutland Post), to row was to blow up into an international Pakistan; and flag-burning in Gaza. Iraq. Radical Islamists pronounced a fatwa begin a debate. How far should Denmark incident, largely because of the perceived against the 500-strong Danish garrison in go down the road of self-censorship? And obdurate response of Denmark's centre- At this critical point the Danish PM decided southern Iraq; there were fresh attacks on was freedom of speech more important right prime minister, Anders Fogh to intervene. On Monday, Mr Rasmussen churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk. The fate than Muslim sensitivities? Rasmussen. On October 19 ambassadors conceded the debate had moved on from of two German engineers kidnapped last from Islamic countries, including Saudi an abstract argument about freedom of month is unclear. On September 30 the paper's editor, Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, demanded a speech, and expressed his regret at the Carsten Juste, launched his own meeting. They wanted the paper offence caused to millions of Muslims. The Back in Denmark, journalists at Jyllands- provocative experiment, commissioning prosecuted. The PM gave them the brush- paper at the centre of the row also said Posten, where there was a bomb threat on and publishing 12 cartoonists who had off, arguing that his government could not sorry. In an open letter posted on its Tuesday, concede the storm is unlikely to come up with their own satirical drawings interfere with the right to free speech. website in English and Arabic, it recognised die down soon. "Most of the 200,000 of the prophet Muhammad. that it had "indisputably offended many Muslims in Denmark are integrated. You At this point a group of ultra-conservative Muslims". But by this stage it was too late. have a minority of rightwing imams who The results were mixed. Most weren't very Danish imams decided to take matters into The row was escalating into the most are trying to stir things up," Lund reflected. funny. One was clearly offensive, depicting their own hands, setting off on an serious confrontation over free speech "We are talking about 1%." a bearded Muhammad with his turban ambitious tour of Saudi Arabia and Egypt between Europe and the Middle East since transformed into a fizzing bomb. Another with a dossier containing the inflammatory the Salman Rushdie affair. Did he have any regrets? "We apologised showed a queue of ragged suicide bombers cartoons. for hurting the feelings of a lot of Muslims arriving in heaven, only for Muhammad to Outraged by what they regarded as in this. But we don't apologise for printing tell them: "Stop, stop, we've run out of According to Jyllands-Posten, the imams Denmark's "caving in", several rightwing the cartoons." virgins." Either way, the drawings were to from the organisation Islamisk Trossamfund European newspapers decided it was time http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,170 2091,00.html#article_continue set a fuse that would eventually ignite took three other mysteriously unsourced to demonstrate solidarity. On Wednesday,