I hope I'm alone in not getting this

As the violence inspired by the publication of cartoons insulting to the Muslim prophet Muhammed spreads, I am becoming more and more surprised. The conventional wisdom is that the violence is being led and propogated by extreme Islamists, not the average Muslim drawn into the streets in pious outrage. Nonetheless, we're still talking about thousands of people, in numerous countries, marching, shouting, burning, and attacking embassies. It's very hard for me to grasp the desire or willingness to reject entire nations on the basis of a handful of newspapers.

The growing storyline is that certain states (eg, Syria, Iran) are instigating the worst riots. That sounds plausible; they are certainly at fault for utterly failing to protect the foreign embassies they host. Be that as it may, it is still striking that so many people are ready to respond to the instigation. What lie would the government have to tell you for you to march on, for instance, the Egyptian embassy?

That's the last bit that strikes me about these riots: the rage is focused on the Nordic countries. I'd understand burning the US embassy, boycotting US goods, etc, etc; in fact, I'm surprised not to see more of it. But the Swedes? The Danes? What has Denmark ever done (other than give the most foreign aid, as percentage of GDP, of any rich country)?

I'm not writing this thinking I should have known better, that I shouldn't be surprised by any of these events. The more I think about this, the more I think there are truly deep differences at work, issues contained in the assumed and the taken-for-granted.