I am inclined to believe as noted by several commentators that some Muslims are indeed abusing the Jyllands-Posten incident. Caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published last year by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on Sep 30. That was a good four months ago.

Some commentators have attributed the escalation of protests from the Arab world led by the Egyptian government and those in power who have found it opportune to shore up their flagging Islamic credentials as their electorates show keenness in voting out old regimes.

There are even assertions in some quarters that the publication of the Danish cartoons was a "Jewish conspiracy" over Israel's discontent over the Hamas election victory in Palestine, despite the fact that Hamas won long after Sept 30, the date of first publication of the cartoons.