Has freedom gone up in flames? STORY OF THE WEEK Bomb threats, flag burning and a crippling trade boycott - provoked by cartoons. Has the reaction of the Muslim world been over-the-top? We examine this perplexing clash of cultures

In the past week alone, JyllandsPosten has received two bomb threats, forcing staff to suspend their production schedules and evacuate the building. Computer hackers also forced the paper's website to close temporarily, causing more disorder. In the Middle East, meanwhile, Danish flags have been set alight, protesters have urged a boycott of Danish products and al Qaeda groups have issued death threats to the citizens of Denmark, a country unaccustomed to taking centre stage in such momentous world events.

The 12 cartoons, reprinted this week by several newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, have outraged the Muslim world from Indonesia and the Palestinian territories to Egypt and Pakistan.

But, despite the threats, Olesen and his colleagues are determined to continue as normal. "Maybe I'm naive and don't really believe the threats are real, but I think it's safe to go to work, " he says. "We've taken precautions to protect ourselves and that has to be enough. We can't let others dictate that with threats."

All the staff at the paper, says Olesen, are resolute in their support for the newspaper's decision to print the cartoons. "It's a question of freedom of speech, " he says, echoing the message issued by several newspaper editors this week. "It's regrettable that the cartoons have offended people but it is our right to print them.

"The same goes for the other newspapers that chose to reprint the cartoons. It's become a declaration of the importance of free speech. And that is sacred."

Yesterday calls from protesters in the Middle East to apologise for publishing the cartoons were rejected by Jyllands-Posten. In a leader entitled What if? , the editor-in-chief apologised for underestimating many Muslims' feelings about their prophet, but did not apologise for publishing the cartoons in the first place.

Denmark's prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, also delivered a message to the protesters yesterday in an attempt to resolve the crisis: Danish people "deeply respect all people, including Islam", he said, adding that no offence had been intended.

Having worked as a journalist for the newspaper for more than seven years, Olesen, the newspaper's immigration and asylum correspondent, is used to dealing with raw emotions. Only yesterday he talked to one of the Danish imams who travelled to the Middle East to organise protest against the cartoons. The televised images of burning Danish flags and protesters shouting death threats that followed came as a shock to many Danes. For Olesen, the biggest shock was witnessing the global reaction.

"I've not got the strong feelings for the flag as some people have. Burning the flag is just an empty symbolic gesture from a group of angry people. They could burn buildings, cars or kill people instead - and that would be much worse, " he says.

"But I never dreamed people would react in this way. I'd envisaged some demonstrations in Denmark, perhaps, but not a boycott of Danish products, death threats, fires and Danish ambassadors being urgently called home. It's quite surreal."

Denmark may be at the centre of the dispute, but yesterday there were protests around the world. In London, hundreds of Muslims gathered to show their anger. Meeting after Friday prayers outside Regent's Park mosque, the protesters marched towards the Danish embassy angrily chanting, "Free speech go to hell" as well as religious slogans in Arabic.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain, says Muslims have been offended but that his organisation does not condone the violent actions of extremists. "The extremist reaction has been completely over the top, " he says. "Their issue should have been with the paper itself [Jyllands-Posten] not the whole of Denmark.

"It is like holding the whole of Scotland responsible for a cartoon The Herald prints. Taking to task a whole country for the actions of one newspaper is totally outside the bounds.

"Muslims in Scotland and elsewhere view the prophet Muhammed as they view one of their own family. But the problem here is on both sides. It is not just the depiction of the prophet that is the problem, it's the type of depiction.

"If it [cartoon] had been of a handsome man as Muhammed with a wife or something like that, there would have been little anger. But what they painted was a picture of an ugly, bug-eyed, hook-nosed, pirate-style prophet. And to finally put the boot in, they drew a bomb-shaped turban. We have been trying for years to extricate Islam from terrorism but these cartoons just put them back together again.

"There's been a lot of talk about boycotting Danish, French and German products, but I don't know how deep-rooted the possibility is. It remains to be seen."

Saeed and other prominent Muslim figures acknowledge the issue does cut right to the heart of democracy and the freedom of the press. "The media makes decisions every day of the week on what is good taste and what is bad taste, " says Saeed. "It is up to each paper. It doesn't matter whether they've been in one paper or others, we would like to see reproduction lessened.

"Of course they have the right to do it, but we're in danger of losing sight of the issue which is, would you do something deliberately knowing that it would cause offence to someone? That would just be bad manners. All we are doing in this case is trying to exercise common sense in the international arena."

Bashir Mann, a former Glasgow city councillor and a spokesman for the city's Central Mosque, agrees freedom of speech is vital for democracy, but he says it carries some conditions.

"I think if you use it [freedom of speech] to generate anger and hatred then it is senseless, " says Mann.

He does not accept that the cartoons depicting Muhammed could possibly be seen as funny. "I do not think western people realise the respect with which Muslims hold Muhammed. He is dearer to them than anyone else in the world. Including their family."

Both Saeed and Mann voiced their support for the stance taken by The Herald, and others, in not printing the cartoons.

However, David Hutchison, research fellow in media studies at Glasgow Caledonian University, is unsure the stance newspapers have taken is altogether effective given the fact the images are widely available on the internet.

"It is interesting, " he says, "looking at the [British] papers today. I have not seen one which has reproduced the cartoons. The Guardian played it very funny: on one hand they said we're not printing them, but here's the website to see them.

"The decision is interesting because it shows that the UK press are acutely sensitive of relations between the Muslim part of the British community and the rest of the British community. But I do think the existence of the internet makes their position a nonsense and unsustainable because the pictures are so widely available anyway."

However the debate is resolved, Henrik Vinther Olesen will be certainly watching developments at Muslim prayer sessions closely. He knows the Muslim world will enter into prayer and its leaders will issue calls to their followers. He also knows it could go either way. Hopefully, he says, their call will be for peace.

"I hope the imams say: stop, " says Olesen. "We've seen that these feelings can rise quickly so I think they can tail off just as quickly.

"But I've stopped speculating about what might happen. You just don't know."