The more information that surfaces about how this crisis regarding the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed Cartoons came to pass, the more it becomes clear that this is a planned event.  The outrage did not happen by itself.  It was deliberately and methodically stoked on a specific timetable.  Head over to the Brussels Journal if you want the specifics of the deliberate manipulation of the situation by Islamic extremists in Denmark, here is a short clip from one article:

Radical Danish imams have deliberately incited hatred against Denmark, the country that had hospitably welcomed them in. To this end, while on a visit to Arab countries last month, they added three false, extremely offensive Muhammad “cartoons” to the twelve relatively mild ones published by Jyllands-Posten last September [see the latter here, halfway down the page].

Then there is the article on Opinion Journal by Amir Taheri that makes the strong case that it is all a sham, that there has never been and is not now a prohibition within Islam as a whole on depicting Mohammed, and that specific named groups and people organized the outrage in the Muslim communities:

But how representative of Islam are all those demonstrators? The "rage machine" was set in motion when the Muslim Brotherhood–a political, not a religious, organization–called on sympathizers in the Middle East and Europe to take the field.
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The Muslim Brotherhood’s position… …can be summed up as follows: It is against Islamic principles to represent by imagery not only Muhammad but all the prophets of Islam; and the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion. Both claims, however, are false.

There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else. …. The issue has never been decided one way or another, and the claim that a ban on images is "an absolute principle of Islam" is purely political. Islam has only one absolute principle: the Oneness of God. Trying to invent other absolutes is, from the point of view of Islamic theology, nothing but sherk, i.e., the bestowal on the Many of the attributes of the One.

The claim that the ban on depicting Muhammad and other prophets is an absolute principle of Islam is also refuted by history. Many portraits of Muhammad have been drawn by Muslim artists, often commissioned by Muslim rulers. There is no space here to provide an exhaustive list, but these are some of the most famous: (see article for the long list)
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Now to the second claim, that the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion.
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The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists. Muhammad himself pardoned a famous Meccan poet who had lampooned him for more than a decade. Both Arabic and Persian literature, the two great literatures of Islam, are full of examples of "laughing at religion," at times to the point of irreverence.

There are many Muslims who do clearly oppose depicting Mohammed, posts here on Deep Keel make it clear that many are hurt by them, but it is not ALL Muslims.  But regardless of the hurt feelings, this should never justify murder and mob violence.

If you believe in truth and justice, then intent must matter.  From all the reports and evidence available, here is my best description of how and why this happened.

Jyllands-Posten wanted to assert a fundamental right of Western Civilization to defy the growing menace of Islamic extremists, to provide courage to others living in fear of violence and murder, or in failing that to illuminate the depth of the threat to all.  One can not fairly isolate their actions from the political murders and intimidation in recent years by Islamic radicals in Denmark.  From their statements since then it is clear that they were so focussed on the Islamist radicals that they did not consider how this would effect the larger Muslim world.  They have since oppologized for the hurt caused by their action.

The Islamic extremists who were targetted by this act, the ones dared to back up threats of violence and intimidation, saw the move for what it was:  a massive blow to their campaign of intimidation and their growing menacing power over Denmark and Europe as a whole.  The extremists are organized and intelligent, and they clearly decided they weren’t going to lose even one round in the longterm campaign they have planned, so they set out to gather more influence from abroad to break this newfound Danish resistance and spine.

This effort found fertile ground with the three governments in the Middle East who are currently in trouble with the world community:  the Syrians, the Palestinians, and the Iranians.  All of them are facing tough times ahead and grasped onto this event to use it as a tool to bludgeon the West and divert attention from the mounting pressure on them all.  Supporting this is the obvious evidence that the serious violence was agitated in Syria/Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran.

So there it is:  neither a total conflict with all of Islam, nor a single act that can be forgotten after some apologies.  Rather it is something deeper and more insidious… a determined organized campaign by insurgent Islamic extremists to destroy the essential foundation of Western Civilization from within.  The problem of Iraq for the US is simple in comparison, while this crisis clarifies the broader War on Terror.