The cartoon controversy provides an intriguing bookend to this chapter in light of the many similarities it shares with the Rushdie Affair. Both controversies witnessed Western politicians and media portraying Muslim reactions to perceived insults as monolithic, with little attention to the diversity of Muslim responses and perspectives. Both controversies included Muslim minority communities with very little political representation responding to what they perceived to be demeaning and insulting representations of Islam by the cultural elite. Both controversies involved Muslims initially looking to existing laws, including blasphemy laws, to address their grievances, but to no avail. Both controversies eventually got out of hand as the conflicts played out on an international stage with the attention and participation of Muslim-majority nations.

XREF: Parallels the earlier Rushdie Affair material in this same chapter — the two controversies mirror each other in how Western media portrayed Muslims, and in how Muslims turned to blasphemy laws that failed them. Pays off: "Danish editor tested Muslim self-censorship by commissioning Muhammad cartoons."

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 420