Caricature Chronology

The National Post has this chronology of the caricature campaign and notice the role of a Palestinian cleric:

Nothing 'spontaneous' about it

Amir Taheri

...the whole rigmarole was launched by Islamist groups in Europe and Asia, with Mr. Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.

HERE IS THE CHRONOLOGY:

- The cartoons originally were published last September and, for more than three months, caused no ripples outside small groups of Islamist in Denmark.

- In December, a group of Danish Muslim militants, led by 60-year-old Palestinian imam Abu-Laban, filled suitcases with photocopies of the cartoons and embarked on a tour of Muslim capitals.

The group did something dishonest: It added a number of far more derogatory cartoons of the Prophet to the 12 published by the Jyalland Posten, and misled interlocutors in Muslim capitals into believing that all had appeared in the Danish press.

- In Cairo, the group was told by the Muslim Brotherhood that this was not the time to kick up a fuss over the cartoons. The Brotherhood was busy plotting its election strategy and pretending to be a "moderate" political party. The last thing it wanted was to be branded as a rabid anti-West force. Brotherhood leaders suggested the matter be put on ice until January.

The Danish militants received a similar reply from Hamas, which was then trying to win the Palestinian general election, and needed to assuage at least part of the Palestinian middle classes.

- The Danish Muslim emissaries found a more sympathetic audience in Qatar, base of the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera. The channel's chief Islamist televangelist, Yussuf al-Qaradawi, was all too keen to issue a fatwa. He then mobilized his network of militants in Europe to attack the cartoons, claiming the Danish paper had violated "an absolute principle of The Only True Faith."

- As the first rent-a-mob crowds appeared on global TV screens, Ahmadinejad realized this was a cow worth milking.