LONDON -- The furor over cartoons published in a Danish paper last September mocking Islam has not yet ended. One was of the prophet Muhammad wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, implying that Islam was a terrorist organization. Muslims were outraged because they saw a false image of Islam conveyed and because rendering the images of people and animals are generally prohibited under Islamic tradition.
The printing of the cartoons did not attract much attention at first and might have soon been forgotten. But some Muslims, annoyed by the imposition of strict Danish immigration limits, apparently decided, as part of their campaign against the rules, to agitate in the Middle East, arguing that the cartoons were blasphemous and a serious insult to Islam. This led to attacks on Danish embassies and consulates and on those of other Scandinavian countries, especially Norway.
Protests like the large demonstration by Muslims in London against the Danish Embassy inevitably gave further publicity to the controversy and have, in turn, inflamed anti-Islamic protests.