"The situation had changed drastically by September 2005,

when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. These cartoons tapped into the all-too-familiar tropes of violence and gender oppression. This time the situation was a bit different: millions of people around the world could see the offensive cartoons on their computer with the click of a button. In a perfect postmodern twist of irony and self-reflexivity, some of the cartoons poked fun at the obscure Danish paper's attempt to generate self-serving controversy. The editors who had commissioned the cartoons claimed that "the cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions." [22] This turned out to be another lie.  The hypocrisy of the editors' championing of "freedom of speech" was eventually revealed when they confessed that they had earlier turned down cartoons lampooning Jesus Christ because they deemed them offensive. [23] Furthermore, the editors had traveled to the United States to meet with some of the leading Islamophobic leaders who had been leading [e: a bit repeating of 'lead' there, editors? :)] the attacks against Muslims. [24] The editors tried time and again to pose these cartoons as a litmus test for Danish Muslims: those who could stomach them were genuinely committed to being a part of Danish society, and those who could not would never be truly Danish. In reality, Islamophobes from the States, allying themselves with right-wing, anti-immigration factions in Denmark, had led a campaign against Muslims in that country for years. One example is the cooperation between the noted American Islamophobe Daniel Pipes and the right-wing Danish journalist Lars Hedegaard in writing "Something Rotten in Denmark?" There is indeed something rotten in Denmark, and in much of Europe - the rising tide of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment that shows up in France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. [25]

In other words, the cartoons were not really about Muhammad: they were about the anxieties of some Danes about the changing demographics and nature of Danish society. The cartoonist used Muslims' sensitivity and devotion toward the Prophet to create a combustible and antagonistic situation that, by default, would end up marking Muslims as permanent outsiders. [26]

-Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters by Omid Safi, pgs. 15-16