Just thought id give a super brief update.
the riots continued last nite for the fifth day. cars, dumpster, a local city hallish building, and a school has been burnt down and cops and journalists have been attacked with rocks, bottles etc. basically the french riots and the youth house riots have opened up a new area for conflict, which has been used by kids to organise themselves against a number of things. no type of demands have been issued by people connected to the riots, but leftist have tried to frame this as a primarily antiracist issue as many rioters are secong generation immigrants. allthough (racist) police harrasment (there are temporary "special survelience" laws, kinda ASBOish in effect for two more months in many working class areas, and an elderly palestinian man was very brutally arrested in front of a bunch of kids a week ago which sparked local riots) is obviously important in trying to explain what is going on - but the fact that no one from inside this movement (it seems to be very organised, has spread to several disctricts of Copenhagen and other cities) actually is trying to make this to be a single issue thing is interesting. no statements, no slogans, no communication to the press or society at large. the whole mohammed-picture story and general xenophobia is of course part of the mixture, and islamic group are as well as leftists trying to act as negotiators, but basically it comes down to kids, in many cases as young as 12-15, being fed up with their situation and attacking obvious symbols of the established society together.
the riots have rather obvious limitations, but they are also pontetially important in generating unity between different groups within the working class as they fight side by side against the police. anarchists/autonomen have obviously joined in the street fights to some degree, and much of the style of actions is directly copied from the previous years many riots.
if something interesting happens ill try to keep you guys updated.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-14-denmark-unrest_N.htm
Probably the same people that rioted in 2005 alongside the Banlieues in France. Looks mildly related to the cartoon republishing but even the police say it's to do with 'perceived' harrassment. Not much to suggest it's targeted against newspapers in any way either.