This growing momentum of violent protests does seem orchestrated to me. It seems like the political arm of a global Jihadist movement is flexing its muscles by showing the western world how it can mobilize ordinary people to rise up in protest.

Poor Denmark! They are a small country--only about half the size of Maine. They're taking a huge economic hit over this.

> Muslim newspaper ran
> cartoons 4 months ago
> No outrage when Egyptian publication
> headlined drawings on Ramadan cover

>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Posted: February 9, 2006
> 1:00 a.m. Eastern

> © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

> Muhammad cartoon on Egypt's al-Fagr
> newspaper cover in October 2005 (courtesy:
> Freedom for Egyptians)

> While Muslims across the world have rioted
> in the past week against countries whose
> newspapers have published cartoons of the
> prophet Muhammad, there was no uproar when
> the same caricatures were prominently
> displayed in an Islamic newspaper four
> months ago.

> The images originating in Denmark's
> Jyllands-Posten in September were reportedly
> featured on the cover and inside pages of
> Egypt's al-Fagr (the Dawn) in October,
> during the holy month of Ramadan.

> According to the Freedom for Egyptians blog,
> al-Fagr included the cartoons on the front
> cover and page 17 of its edition dated Oct.
> 17. The headline, when translated, is said
> to read: "Continued Boldness. Mocking
> the Prophet and his wife by
> Caricature."

> Muhammad cartoons on page 17 of Egypt's
> al-Fagr newspaper in October 2005 (courtesy:
> Egyptian Sandmonkey blog)

> "The Egyptian paper criticized the bad
> taste of the cartoons but it did not incite
> hatred protests," notes the blog.
> "It would have been better that this
> [current] holy war against Denmark be
> launched during the holy month of Ramadan as
> many Muslims believe that Jihad during
> Ramadan would have been more worthy. This
> irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that
> this violent response to the cartoons is
> politically motivated by Muslim extremists
> in Europe and the so-called secular
> governments of the Middle East. I want also
> to mention that despite the fact that all
> editors who tried to reprint the cartoons in
> the Middle East nowadays were arrested, the
> Egyptian editors went unharmed."

> To date, at least 10 people have been killed
> in Afghanistan alone from Muslim riots in
> connection with the cartoons, though
> protests have been taking place in many
> countries throughout Europe and the Mideast.
> Some 4,000 angry Muslims took to the streets
> of the Egyptian capital of Cairo this week,
> though there were no protests when al-Fagr
> published the images during Ramadan in
> October.

> Interestingly, an Associated Press story in
> the Khaleej Times of the United Arab
> Emirates reports al-Fagr reprinted copies of
> the cartoons this week, but published only
> "the upper half of some of the
> controversial cartoons, omitting any facial
> representations. Adel Hamoudah, editor of
> al-Fagr, said he took copies of the cartoons
> from the Internet for the Tuesday edition
> and published them as a means of emphasizing
> their 'impudence.' He did not explain,
> however, why he chose only to print the
> upper half of the caricatures."

> It's not clear if the paper even mentioned
> it previously published the entire images on
> its cover and interior in October.

> "This tells me one thing, at least, and
> that is the Egyptians who get this newspaper
> and who took to the streets are either
> incredibly stupid, hypocritical, or
> both," said an anonymous poster on
> FFE's blog. "They are stupid because
> they believe what they're told by the Arab
> press in the previous week without checking
> for the facts. They are hypocritical if they
> protested the second time they saw the
> cartoons and not protested when it was first
> printed. Here, I'm going to go out on a limb
> and say 'both.'"

> Meanwhile in the U.S., the AP, the largest
> news-gathering organization in the world, is
> being attacked by a California newspaper
> editor over the wire service's refusal to
> distribute the cartoons of Muhammad.

> "But what is incredible is that the
> Associated Press, which distributes news
> stories and photos from across the globe,
> has decided that you shouldn't see it,"
> writes editor Don Holland of the Daily Press
> in Victorville, Calif. "What is
> offensive is that AP fancies itself to be
> the guardian of good taste for thousands of
> American newspapers rather than letting
> individual newspapers make that decision.

> Related offers:

> How can the West survive global jihad?

> Shock a Muslim – with the truth! 'The
> Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and
> the Crusades)'