Von Daniel Schwammenthal, Wall Street Journal

Brussels -- Four months ago, Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper
published 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. At first, the
cartoons elicited little interest.

But in December Danish Muslims circulated them in the Islamic world.
They added two particularly inflammatory drawings that had never been
published by the paper -- one involved a pig's nose and the other an
indecent act with a dog. Street protests erupted from Lahore to Gaza.
Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait withdrew their ambassadors from
Copenhagen, calling for an apology and punishment of the editors.
Danish products are being boycotted in the Middle East, where state-controlled media speak darkly of a conspiracy against Islam. Palestinian terrorists have declared Danes and other Europeans as legitimate targets. The Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday were looted and torched by mobs. Journalists at Jyllands-Posten have received death threats. Danish flags, whose design is based on a Christian cross, are being burned. So much for religious respect.

For four months, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and
Jyllands-Posten staunchly refused to apologize. But last week, with
little support from the rest of Europe against this orchestrated
assault on Denmark's press freedom, the paper caved in, much to the
government's relief.

Were the cartoons disrespectful? Certainly. In Islam the drawing of any
image of Muhammad is forbidden and so religious Muslims might feel
offended. As might millions of Christians when Jesus is depicted as gay
or defiled in a thousand other ways every day. But that's what letters
to the editor are for.

Moreover, the cartoons didn't mock Islam as such but its abuse by
militant Muslims. One cartoon showed Muhamad with a turban in the form
of a bomb. The issue, though, is much larger than the question of how
to balance press freedom with religious sensibilities; it goes to the
heart of the conflict with radical Islam. The Islamists demand no less than
absolute supremacy for their religion -- and not only in the Muslim
world but wherever Muslims may happen to reside. That's why they see no
hypocrisy in their demand for "respect" for Islam while the simple
display of a cross or a Star of David in Saudi Aabia is illegal.
Infidels simply don't have the same rights.

The murder in 2004 of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim
fundamentalist in Amsterdam demonstrated the kind of risks critics of
Islam are exposed to these days -- even in Europe. Fundamentalists can
find good cover -- and followers -- among the millions of Muslim
immigrants on the Continent. Jyllands-Posten decided to publish the
cartoons after complaints from an author that he could not find an
illustrator who dared to draw images of Muhammad for his book. It was
this atmosphere of fear and intimidation that the newspaper wanted to
highlight. The Muslim reaction to these pictures only confirmed how
relevant the topic is.

Using their combined economic muscle, death threats and street
protests, a combination of state and nonstate actors are slowly exporting to
Europe the Middle East's repressive system. What Jyllands-Posten's
editors are enduring is not unlike what dissidents under communism had
to go through. The Islamists can't send the journalists to a gulag but
they can silence them by threatening to kill them. Bomb threats twice
forced the journalists to flee their offices last week.

Reminiscent of Stalinist show trials, the paper was in the end forced
to show public remorse. The cartoons "were not in variance with Danish law
but have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize,"
the paper said Monday. "I would have never chosen to depict religious
symbols in this way," the previously defiant Mr. Rasmussen added. But
just like the original show trials, the "admission of guilt" won't cut
the Danes much slack. Muslim organizations in Denmark rejected it as
not "sincere" and the death threats, protests and boycotts continue.

Just as was the case with communism, Islamic totalitarian impulses find
their apologists in the West. Last Monday in Qatar, former U.S.
President Bill Clinton decried the "totally outrageous cartoons against
Islam." EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said the journalists
"have to understand the offense caused by cartoons of this nature," and the
U.S. state department said that "inciting religious or ethnic hatred in
this manner is not acceptable."

The support shown in the past few days by newspapers around Europe
reprinting the cartoons is very welcome. But the vast majority of
Europe's media didn't join the battle. And so in the end, it was too
little, too late, coming just after the Danes were forced to "confess."

"Those who have won are dictatorships in the Middle East, in Saudi
Arabia, where they cut criminals' hands and give women no rights,"
Jyllands-Posten's editor in chief, Carsten Juste, told the AP.

But what really sealed the Danes' fate -- and possibly Europe's -- was
the lack of solidarity from other governments. The European Union likes
to call "emergency meetings" for the most trivial topics, from farm
subsidies to VAT rates. But when one of their smallest members came
under attack for nothing else than being a European country, for
defending the values and norms the EU is based on, there was nothing
but silence from Europe's capitals. That silence has been heard and
understood in the Muslim world.