Just when it was looking like America was going to have to do all the work antagonizing the… Just when it was looking like America was going to have to do all the work antagonizing the Muslim world, Denmark – of all countries – steps up and reminds us that in Europe, some things never change.

It’s looking like xenophobia is one of those things.

The recent publication of satirical pictures of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper has incited the ire of Muslims around the world, leading to countless protests throughout Europe and the Middle East. Many turned into violent attacks on Western-run sites in a variety of countries.

Flemming Rose, the editor responsible for the publication of the cartoons, told The New York Times that they were printed solely to assert the power of freedom of speech over religious hangups.

Thanks, Denmark.

Is this really the time for a symbolic gesture like this? It’s not like relations between the West and the Muslim world have exactly been peachy lately. Yes, Flemming Rose may very well have every right to publish whatever content he deems fit for his paper, but some more thought into the possible consequences of their publication would have helped.

Rose refuses to apologize for the cartoons, and now this seemingly minor statement is yet another to become a game of chicken between the Western world and the Muslim world. Neither side wants to give any ground on the issue because each party views its position as the absolutely necessary defense of a set of values that cannot be compromised.

The sentiment of support for Rose is born out of Europe’s paranoia with regard to the influence of Islam. Anti-Islam attitudes are not the least bit uncommon there, where many Europeans feel as though Muslim immigrants pose a threat to their way of life and wish to infect their secular norms with the rules of Islam. Rose told The New York Times, “When Muslims say you are not showing respect, I would say: You are not asking for my respect, you are asking for my submission.”

So, in short, what we have here is a prevailing xenophobic sentiment in Europe fed by its fear of a powerful and growing religious minority. Germany, are you paying attention?

This is a problem for everyone. First, these cartoons are legitimately offensive to Muslims around the world. Not just Muslims in Europe. Not just Islamic fundamentalists. All Muslims in all countries. They have every right to be offended – the cartoons are a slap-in-the-face mockery of some of their most basic and sacred religious tenets and evoke no more constructive a message than “Muslims are backwards, violent terrorists.” They are not satire. They are tasteless. They are hate speech.

And this is not exactly the time to be antagonizing the Muslim world just to prove a point. It’s hard enough for the West to fight the war on terror without blurring the lines between a military action against a mobile enemy and a cultural showdown between two groups with irreconcilable religious normative values. To boot, some of the very countries that have been so vocal on the topic of America’s lack of sensitivity and maturity in dealing with other cultures are now helping Denmark fan the flames of that very growing culture war between the West and Islam. France, we’re looking at you.

Meanwhile, sane people of all persuasions are hurt by stuff like this. Islamic fundamentalists are taking this as a very ripe opportunity to incite violence against Western institutions at otherwise peaceful protests. And thus the culture war and the war on terror become all the more inextricable and confused. This trend, of course, does nothing whatsoever to improve Islam’s image on the global stage, and ultimately, to some extent, validates the negative perceptions reflected in the cartoons that ran in the Danish paper to begin with, which only strengthens the case for sympathizers of that kind of thinking.

Does anybody else see a vicious cycle growing here?