'"We're seeing ourselves characterised as an intolerant people or as enemies of Islam as a religion. That picture is false. Extremists and radicals who seek a clash of cultures and religions are spreading it," Mr Rasmussen said.' Which image is fake and who are the extremists?

Three insulting images added by Imam
Let us begin with the image. The BBC reports: 'The Jyllands-Posten cartoons do not include some images that may have had a role in bringing the issue to international attention.' According to the BBC there has been talk of a 'misunderstanding' concerning the three (1 2 3) additional images in question: 'Three images in particular have done the rounds, in Gaza for example, which are reported to be considerably more obscene and were mistakenly assumed to have been part of the Jyllands-Posten set.' One of the pictures concerns a blurry photocopy of a man wearing a pig snout. This has nothing to do with an insult to the prophet Mohammed, but is instead a photo from an annual French festival where the squealing of pigs is imitated: 'It was reportedly circulated by Danish Muslims to illustrate the atmosphere of Islamophobia which they say they live under', reports the BBC. The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reports that the man in the picture is shocked that his masked face has come to cause so much misery; the photographer has labeled the situation 'totally bizarre' and is considering legal action.

On February 2nd The Counter Terrorism Blog wrote that the photocopy was distributed by the Danish imam Ahmad Abu Laban, the head of the Islamic Society of Denmark. Laban, who received little sympathy from either the newspaper or the Danish Prime Minister after the twelve cartoons were published, went on a tour through the Middle East looking to make news, just as he had earlier announced he would: '"We want to internationalize this issue so that the Danish government would realize that the cartoons were not only insulting to Muslims in Denmark but also to Muslims worldwide," said Abu Laban. "It was decided to take such a step because it is wrong to turn a blind eye to the fact that some European countries discriminate against their Muslims on the grounds that they are not democratic and that they can not understand western culture."' The Counter Terrorism Blog revealed that the Muslim delegation then inserted pictures into the series of cartoons from the Danish newspaper: '[...] the Danish Muslim delegation showed much more than the 12 cartoons published by Jyllands Posten. In the booklet it presented during its tour of the Middle East, the delegation included other cartoons of Mohammed that were highly offensive, including one where the Prophet has a pig face. But these additional pictures were NOT published by the newspaper, but were completely fabricated by the delegation and inserted in the booklet (which has been obtained and made available to me by Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet). The delegation has claimed that the differentiation was made to their interlocutors, even though the claim has not been independently verified. In any case, the action was a deliberate malicious and irresponsible deed carried out by a notorious Islamist [...]'. That portrayal is a possible reference to this statement: '"We love bin Laden, we love Saddam Hussein, and anyone who is willing to destroy the U.S"', said Laban, as quoted in the Jerusalem Post.

This also supplies the extremist component to this story - to which the Danish Prime Minister alluded. Flemming Rose, culture editor of the Danish newspaper-in-question, elaborates on this further: '"All of that gratuitous rubbish was trumped around to trigger a campaign of senseless hatred," Rose said. [...] International terrorism expert Lorenzo Vidino, of the Washington, D.C.-based Investigative Project, said he believes the additional drawings "added fuel to the fire." "The original cartoons were offensive, but these were worse," he said. "It was really nasty stuff." Vidino, author of the recently published "Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of International Jihad," said the portfolio itself made no distinctions between the sets of drawings. "They said they made the distinction in their presentations. Did they? That's impossible to know. But I do know that in Arabic chat rooms, people were talking about the Danes showing pictures of the prophet Muhammad as a pig." Vidino said the group's leader, Ahmed Abu Laban, describes himself as a moderate imam but has past ties to radical Islamists, such as serving as a translator for top al-Qaida aide Ayman al-Zawahri in the early 1990s.'

Cui bono?
The all-important question of who stands to benefit from the situation is in this case partially addressed by Druze leader and head of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt who says that 'the Danish office burnings were directed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in part using undercover soldiers acting as rioters. Later, during the [ABC]radio interview, Jumblatt clarified he thinks Syria worked together with Iran to orchestrate the riots. "All over the Islamic world there were civilized protests except in Lebanon and Syria," said Jumblatt. "I suggest the Syrian government and regime with their allies were behind these attacks."' For Syria the appeal may lie with the distraction that the controversy offers from the ongoing investigation into the death of the Lebanese leader Hariri. Iran can use the dispute to reinforce its anti-Western kamikaze attitude in advance of the coming war that Israel and the United States are now preparing for. These last two countries view the circumstances surrounding the cartoons positively because it casts 'the Muslims' in a negative light, which will suit them well during the lead-up to the coming war against Iran.

Worldwide retreat into the trench of fundamentalism
The cartoon situation is part of a worldwide rightward shift towards fundamentalism and intractability. In the chaos created by disinformation and the lack of reliable information, many people cling to powerful symbols and powerful leaders. It is a retreat into the trenches, orchestrated by those who are disseminating the disinformation and submitted to by those who, in the face of a glut of disinformation and meaningless news, are in no position to define an alternate course. The logical reaction is to become defensive, and to hold that position by attacking. Examples of this can be seen in the election victory of Hamas, the fundamentalist extremism of the American President Bush and the Iranian President Ahmadinejad, statements by Chirac concerning France's willingness to use nuclear weapons, the 'fundamentalizing' of immigrant youth in The Netherlands, the strained relations between French youth and the French government, and measures introduced all over the world limiting people's freedom. It can even be seen in this rap video, in which it is once again made clear that both sides - Westerners and non-Westerners, Christians and Muslims, seculars and believers - are walking headfirst into the trap that has been set with the help of multiple forms of psychological warfare, designed to turn people against each other and play one side off against the other.