That the cartoons offended Muslims in September and October is not in dispute. However there have been MANY offensive media publications, including films in the Netherlands, in the past. So why was there no rioting and storming of the Dutch embassies?
In other words, Muslims have had many occasions to be offended by the media in Europe. Why are these 12 cartoons the straw that "broke the camel's back" (not to use an offensive expression)?
Pax Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian
He could've said exactly that to the ambassadors. Refusing to meet ambassadors is something very serious in diplomacy.
That the cartoons offended Muslims in September and October is not in dispute.
No, the point was that already in October, things escalated enough that representatives of 11 foreign governments were into the issue, while you claimed that only the Saudi state was into it and that from January. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Death threats
At first, though, the outrage was local. Several thousand Danish Muslims protested. Three of the cartoonists received death threats; security guards were posted outside the newspaper's offices in Copenhagen and Arhus.
Interesting to note that death threats already happened before it became an "international incident". I would classify that as an escalation too.
What should have remained a parochial row was to blow up into an international incident, largely because of the perceived obdurate response of Denmark's centre-right prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. On October 19 ambassadors from Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, demanded a meeting. They wanted the paper prosecuted. The PM gave them the brush-off, arguing that his government could not interfere with the right to free speech.
We can say that the PM acted stupidly in not meeting them. No argument. But "prosecuting the paper" was a stupid demand too.
