The cartoon controversy structurally repeated the Rushdie Affair in four respects.

Evidence

The cartoon controversy provides an intriguing bookend to this chapter in light of the many similarities it shares with the Rushdie Affair. Both controversies witnessed Western politicians and media portraying Muslim reactions to perceived insults as monolithic, with little attention to the diversity of Muslim responses and perspectives. Both controversies included Muslim minority communities with very little political representation responding to what they perceived to be demeaning and insulting representations of Islam by the cultural elite. Both controversies involved Muslims initially looking to existing laws, including blasphemy laws, to address their grievances, but to no avail. Both controversies eventually got out of hand as the conflicts played out on an international stage with the attention and participation of Muslim-majority nations. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 420

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the Rushdie Affair — a comparative template the reader can reuse across the book’s case studies. — connects to: The Rushdie Affair was the first major Muslim-non-Muslim conflict in Europe — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 343; The Rushdie Affair drove European Muslims to organize politically and prioritize religious identity — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 358