Where did the Mohammed Cartoons come from? A Danish "culture editor" who is a fan of Richard Perle.

You are not saying that this was a US plot, are you?

The cartoons were published in many European papers out of solidarity. And EU politicians defended the publication.

The US media (with small excpetions) did not print the cartoons. And US politicians criticized the cartoons.

On the cartoon issue: The US was the appeaser, while Europeans defended our liberties. Fine, but some papers were overly insensitive to Muslim feelings.

Please excuse the generalization based on time constraints: Many Arabs have an inferiority complex. And we in the West are to blame, because we often rub into their face: Undemocratic, few liberties, bad economy, bad science, bad technology, hardly any internationally well-known authors/musicians/sports stars etc.
They only thing they have left to feel proud of is religion. And then our papers need to make a statement about press freedom and not being cowards and appeasers and they reprint the cartoons.

So, to answer my own question about what needs to be done: Forget about democracy promotion. We don't have much credibility or expertise to do so. Let's find a way to boos self-respect in the Arab world. Avoid humiliating the Arabs.

Of course, this is very difficult. And it should not mean appeasement or ignoring human rights violations etc.
I have no clue how to make Arabs more proud and self respecting and feel less humiliated and have less of an inferiority complex etc.