[nomadking]

But those that protested about returning soldiers were allowed to do so. Then there were the protests about the Danish cartoons of Mohammed with the placards they were carrying. The Police were escorting them and so could have taken immediate action, but didn't.

Came across this link as to why the cartoons were created in the first place.

According to Flemming Rose, editor of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which published the cartoons, “I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. ...a Danish children’s writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences.” There was thus a serious issue to address, namely a growing fear that anything that might simply be perceived as critical of Islam could not be created.

The original cartoons were published on September 30, 2005. Other European newspapers republished them in 2006 — also not for the purpose of provoking and insulting, but because, like the Jyllands-Posten, they believed that freedom of expression was under assault from extremists using violence and intimidation. They were showing solidarity with the Danish press by taking equal responsibility for the publication rather than engaging in self-defeating self-censorship. They believed they had a right to publish material critical of Islam, Muslims, and Muslim figures like Muhammad even if some find it offensive.

No religion should be exempt from criticism, critique, attack, or even mocking. No one can claim that their religious sensibilities should take precedence over others' rights to free speech and free expression.

Muslims are saying that their interpretations of the cartoons should determine whether they are legally permitted or not.

Such cartoons should not be published merely to offend Muslims or because they offend Muslims; the cartoons should be published, however, because Muslims’ religious objections to the cartoons have been riots, violence, terror, and suppression of free speech. So long as the dominant Muslim reaction to things they find objectionable is call for violence against and/or government suppression of objectionable material, it’s the duty of others to comment on this — especially when such commentary itself falls within the “objectionable” category.