This may be a fluke or a new trend. Time will tell. If the former, Europe may yet escape both Dhimitude and xenophobe rule. When the Danish cartoonists and their paper were threatened by Islamists for their Muhammad cartoons, the danish media did not unite behind them. But when axe wielding Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks is similarly threatened, the Swedish media pushed back. This time Islamists failed to divide and conquer:

Following alleged plot to murder artist who drew cartoon depicting Prophet Muhammad with body of a dog, Swedish newspapers publish it to take stance for freedom of speech. 'A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes,' one paper says

Why?

I believe the recent electoral success of Geert Wilders may have something to do with the Swedish media developing a sudden spine. The liberal/leftist power elite may be looking at what is happening in traditionally very liberal Netherlands and realizing that if they fail to stand up to Islamists intimidation, the people will replace them with extremists who would. And, yes, I call a person who compares the Koran to Mein Kampf, an extremist.

If, indeed, Dutch far-right breakthrough has been met with Muslim disbelief, then Muslims, too, may finally switch from protecting Islamists to demanding that they stop endangering them. What repeated pleas from Western moderates or the election of Barack Hussein Obama failed to do Dutch willingness to vote for Geert Wilders may have succeeded doing. There is no rule that says that history must repeat itself and Wilders may end doing what Der Spiegel speculates morph into a moderate in search of additional voters. After all, he has gotten all the attention he may have wished for and no longer has the need to be provocative to get it.

CORRECTION: Baron Bodissey wrote me to point out that the Danish newspapers took similar action in response to the recent attempt on cartoonist Kurt Westergaard life. Five of Denmark's major papers, Jyllands-Posten, Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, BT and Ekstra Bladet republished the Westergaard's cartoon, the one which shows Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Does that mean that my hypothesis is wrong? Not necessarily. The Swedish media failed to stand up when Al Qaeda Iraq offered a $100,000 dollar bounty for Lars Vilks' head and $50,000 for that of Ulf Johansson, the editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda.

In other words, only the future will tell if the Swedish media act of solidarity is a singular event or a new trend. The same goes for the rest of the global MSM.