The predictable responses to the Danish cartoons

Posten published the now famous 12 cartoons of the Holy Prophet Muhammed. For the Danish mass media such obvious provocation on the part of Jyllands-Posten (JP) was not really newsworthy. After all JP had published confrontational anti-Islamic pieces many times before. Only when Muslim communities began to react to the offending cartoons and native Danish groups of authors, doctors, dentists, ministers, and others reacted to the tone of the media debate on ethnic minorities, did the mass media begin to cover the cartoon issue and reactions to it. The coverage grew more intense when Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen committed a blunder by refusing to meet with 11 ambassadors repre-senting half a billion Muslim people. Unable to have a dialogue with the Danish government, the ambassadors turned to their governments in the Middle East, while Islamic individuals and groups went to the same countries to talk about the cartoons. One Danish imam phrased it this way: Earlier when we went abroad to talk about anti-Islamic sentiments in Denmark, few people really believed us. With ‘the ticking bomb’ cartoon, everyone knew exactly what we were talking about and was outraged (Alev, 2005). From here the story turned truly global and released what has been called the most serious crisis in Danish foreign policy since the Second World War. In the course of events experts of all kinds have joined in to comment on and explain the unfolding global news story. Local reactions were predictable, some said, because the cartoons had simply triggered local outrage and frustration, ignited by social and political tension. The cartoons were not really the problem. Others explained that mass demonstrations and burning of flags were done without protesters having even seen the cartoons. Many words and much ink were wasted on discussing whether the cartoons should have been published or not.