How it happened.
It might first be helpful to point out that Muslims and non-Muslims alike have made images of the prophet for centuries. Some of these have been reverential, some not, but it has generally not caused any problems.
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
Years ago in Europe, people fought long wars and won the right to criticise and even ridicule religions. Eventually they freed their state from torturers and police who oppressed people on the pretext that they were “offended”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aikenhead
The people exercised their new right frequently.
http://www.hedning.no/humor/cartoons/Bilder%20store.html - cartoons mocking jesus and chr
A man was killed for making a film about Muhammad. Had the terrorists returned? Were people afraid? Were people killing again to suppress religious freedom? A newspaper decided to test this. They published some cartoons.
http://forum.newspaperindex.com/viewtopic.php?t=5 – pictures actually published by Jyllands-Posten
They were reprinted in the Islamic world. People weren't happy to be sure, but it caused no real fuss, no great outrage. Everything was fine.
http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/ - pictures in egyption newspaper 3 month earlier
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html - ditto
http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF09022006_010
http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/02/cartoons-were-published-five-months.html Cartoons were Published Five Months ago in Egypt
Several months later, a totalitarian state in the middle east sponsors some Danish extremists to travel the world with a false set of pictures, spreading lies and racial hatred.
http://www.neandernews.com/?p=54n – Danish imams busted
http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=329877 – links to the pictures the imams disseminated
http://bibelen.blogspot.com/2006/01/pictures-of-mohammed-in-weekendavisen.html - blog with links to all the pictures
Then embassies are raided, newspapers pontificate about a “crisis”. Many newspapers try to reprint the cartoons, so that the truth might be known. In Jordan and Yemen, the editors are thrown in jail by their governments. In Malaysia, they close the newspaper down. In France, a Middle Eastern owner fires his editor. The truth remains obscured, as governments try to whip up as much hatred and violence as they can.
Where will it end? Will the people find the truth about how they have been used? In Denmark and Belgium the media has now told the truth. Will the truth be told in the middle east, in the UK, France, the USA? In other countries? We shall see.
There is no real “crisis”, no real “outrage”. A few extremists have invented this for stirring up violence and racial hatred. In truth, there are few people in the middle east or elsewhere who are particularly excited, once they learn the truth. Will they learn what has happened?