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by Ranga Jayasuriya reporting from Denmark

As the cartoon controversy is cooling down leaving a violent track of embassy burning and shooting deaths of protestors, questions remain as to how a publication of set of Mohammed drawings by a little known Danish newspaper of 150,000 circulation lead to a volcanic eruption of anger in the Islamic world. Is it "a clash of cultures," as described by Flemming Rose, the Jyllands-Posten Cultural Editor?

Could the crisis have been unavoidable?

Or could its escalation have been avoided if the Prime Minister Anderes Fogh Rasmussen gave in to the request by ambassadors of eleven Islamic nations, who were perturbed by the Mohammed drawings of the September 30 issue of the Jyllands-Posten.

Rose, who commissioned 12 cartoonists to draw a caricature on the prophet Mohammed, told the Newsweek that the issue, in essence, is a debate about how much the receiving society should be willing to compromise its own standards in order to integrate foreigners.

"On the other hand, how much does the immigrant have to give up in order to be integrated" But, another school of though is that the cartoon controversy is an offshoot of the country's shift towards anti-immigration platform, advocated by ultra right Danish People's Party.

Had the Jyllands-Posten, itself of the right wing been acting in unison with the political right which through its carefully drafted policies has set in motion a wave of Muslimpobia in the country?

I asked Socialist Peoples Party MP and chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee Steen Gade about his chances of getting elected in a back drop of simmering anti-immigrant feelings in the electorate.

He quipped:"It is easy to be elected if you are against foreigners."

Denmark for decades was a willing host of thousands of immigrants of Middle Easter origin who sought asylum in the Danish nation fleeing persecution at home. At present three percent of the country's 5 million population are Muslim immigrants.

Muslims were at the receiving end of the Rasmussen's government which tightened immigrant and asylum laws, one most disputed regulation being the raising of the age for family reunion. Immigrants of the Middle Eastern origin happened to be the most affected of this legislation which required the spouse of a Danish citizen to be over 24 years old, if she is permitted into Denmark. The law was admittedly passed in order to dissuade young men of the Middle Eastern origin marrying from their homelands and bringing their newly married wives to Denmark.

Denmark's reputation as an immigrant friendly nation had taken a complete U turn since Rasmussen's government came to office in 2001. He stepped into areas of the country's slack immigrant regulations where his predecessors, Social Democrats feared to tread in.

And the disenchantment is fuelling in the immigrant ghettos, where unemployment is unbelievably high.

I asked Eyvind Vesselbo, the ruling Liberal Party member of the Parliament and the Government's spokesman on immigration about what went wrong in the country's relations with the immigrants? He, tactfully, passed the blame to the Social Democrats, who ruled the country for the most past of last two decades till they were topped in 2001

"The failure is in the nineties, when people came here from different countries, they lived in immigrant ghettos.

"They lived in settlements away from the rest of Danish people. When we took over the government, we found them living in a parallel society away from the rest of Danes, not talking in Danish, not reading Danish newspapers".

Vesselbo said his government was encouraging immigrants to move from ghettoes and that his government was sending new immigrants to towns where they have to live with the rest of Danes for three years upon which they could move anywhere they wish.

About high unemployment rates among immigrant youth, Vesselbo blamed on Social Democrats who he charged had told immigrants, "you are welcome to enjoy social benefits, but we can't find jobs for you"

He said when his party came to government there were 110,000 immigrant youth who were jobless. Vesselbo himself is aware that such disenchantment fueled by denial of economic rights would have fueled the cartoon controversy at home.

At once over 5,000 immigrant youth took part in a protest, organized by local imams against drawings of Mohammed.

At last, Rasmussen's government is trying to boost ties with the Islamic world.

Last week, it hosted a religious conference attended by Islamic and Christian scholars and clerics, including one prominent Egyptian Islamic cleric Amr Khaled

The conference was hoped to reach common grounds in the uncertain aftermath of Mohammed drawings.

Perhaps most notably, yet ironically, cartoons itself have drawn Danish Muslims, at least a reasonable segment of them, to a rethink on the role of religion in a secular society.

The Syrian born Social democratic party MP Naser Khader last month founded "Democratic Moslems``with the express goal of challenging the Imams as first spokesman for the 200000 Moslems in Denmark.

He has taken a firm stance against the traveling Imams and for the right to say satirical and critical things about Islam.

Khader pleads for a compromiseless confession to democracy, which forms the basis of the movement Democratic Muslims in Denmark.

Among the "ten democratic commandments", of his movement are concepts of secular democracy such as separation of religion from politics, equal rights irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, ethnicitiy or religious belief, none violence etc.

For most Danes, Khader's new movement is the light at the end of the long tunnel of simmering ethnic relations.A recent BT survay has found 85 per cent of Danes as saying Khader as handled the cartoon issue "well".

Khader projects the mood of ordinary Danish Muslims whose opinion he says is misrepresented by immams.

"Our immams are out of touch with ordinary Danish Muslims," he argues.

Most Danish immams, who were "imported" from conservative religeous establishments in Egypt and Syria are themselves a cause for the problem than a solution. Their extreme interpretations of Islam has little relevence to liberal indivudualistic Denmark, the second country to leagalise gay marriages.

Soon after, Jyllands-Posten published drawings, Danish Imam Raed Hlayhel told Arabic website Al Jazeera, "this type of democracy is worthless for Muslims. Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation."

To which the editor-in-chief of the paper Carsten Juste replied that, "We live in a democracy. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn't set any barriers on that sort of _expression."

(But, onething for sure most journalists I spoke disagree with the decision to print Mohammed drawings, though they are at the same time all out to support Jylland Posten's right to publish carton. The old cleche that 'I don't agree with what you say, but I will fight to death for your right to say it is the buzz word)

The general impression among the journalists is that it is not a good idea in the part of Jylland Posten to print cartoons, though it has all the freedom to publish them.

Ahmad Abu Laban, Danish imam, who led a tour by Danish Islamic clerics to draw attention of the Islamic world, is a controversial figure back in the Middle-East. He is persona non grata in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt because of his radical Islamist views.

The tour by the Danish imams in the Arabic world was followed by a wave of violence in which Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon were torched and violent street protets which cost scores of lives.

A recent poll showed 58 percent of Danes believe the Danish imams bear the main responsibility for the recent violence, including flag burnings and attacks on Danish embassies. The Megafon institute survey said 22 percent of the 1,033 Danes interviewed blamed Jyllands-Posten.

Imams, even though they speak out, may not be reflecting the opinion of the majority of Muslim Danes, who like the rest of the population wish a decent living more than anything else.

Imams with their extreme interpretation of Islam could only create more stereotype beliefs about the Muslims in the wider Danish society.

The Danish daily, Information, came out with an insightful coverage on the stereotypes of both sides last week, as it celebrated the world's women's day.

"The question of women's position is on the centre of the meeting between Islam and Europe today.... The naked woman and the covered woman represent the enemy pictures that mirror the vision which Eastern woman and Eastern woman have on each other."

"It is the perfect opposite which we used to construct: It is suppression vs. Liberation, sin vs. virtue, utopia vs. nightmare. Between these stereotypes women of flesh and blood live half covered, half naked with their demand for decent living conditions".

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