What it boils down to is a lack of respect. Tolerance is the lowest level of respect. What the European papers have done by publishing the comics is show a total lack of respect for the Muslim community and couched it in the terms of "freedom of the press." However, the Muslim community has done nothing to mitigate the damage by violently protesting the publication of the comics. In fact, what they've done is arouse curiosity and made the issue mushroom into something even more offensive: the "car-crash effect", as I like to call it. If the Muslim community had either issued a strongly worded rebuke or done nothing, the whole issue would have gone away; instead, it winds up making headlines all over the world, and now EVERYONE has to see the comics to see what all the fuss is about.

There are only two ways to deal with the disrespectful: one is to rebuke them, and the other is to ignore them. Anything else is going to fuel their flames.