Anger over Prophet Muhammad cartoons: a timeline

Paris, France - Muslim religious convention forbids visual depictions of the prophet, which are seen as idolatry and thus blasphemous.

The publication in 2005 by a Danish newspaper of controversial drawings representing the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was just the beginning of outrage in the Muslim world, with France now the target of a new wave of anger.

A timeline:

- Danish cartoons -

In September 2005, the conservative Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes 12 drawings under the headline "The Face of Muhammad".

Muslim religious convention forbids visual depictions of the prophet, which are seen as idolatry and thus blasphemous.

The most infamous of the drawings is one by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, which shows the prophet concealing a bomb inside a turban.

Muslim officials demand an apology from Denmark and Muslims demonstrate in Copenhagen in their thousands.

In early 2006, Saudi Arabia recalls its ambassador to Copenhagen and a boycott of Danish products spreads through the Arab world.

Several Danish websites are targeted by hackers.

- Global controversy -

Several European newspapers, including Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet and the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris also run the drawings, in the name of freedom of expression. The controversy goes global.

In Gaza, armed groups threaten to vent their rage on Western journalists. In Beirut, Damascus and Tehran, in Indonesia, Somalia, Nigeria and Afghanistan, violent demonstrations, attacks and torchings of European embassies leave dozens of people dead.

In February 2008, after a period of calm, the re-publication by 17 Danish newspapers of the most controversial cartoon after a failed attack on its artist revives anger in numerous Muslim countries.

- Attacks -

In June 2008, a suicide attack claimed by Al-Qaeda against the Danish embassy in Islamabad leaves six dead.

In 2010, Danish police catch a 28-year-old Somali armed with a knife in the artist Westergaard's house.

In February 2015, Danish-born Omar Al Hussein shoots dead a filmmaker outside a free speech event attended by Swedish artist Lars Vilks -- who in 2007 portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a dog -- hours before killing a Jewish man outside a synagogue.

In May 2015 in the United States police shoot dead two armed men who opened fire in  Texas near to a centre hosting a competition of Muhammad cartoons.

One of the invitees is the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who had made a film in 2008 linking terrorism and Islam.

Macron is vilified by protesters in Bangladesh, Pakistan, in rebel zones in Syria, in the Gaza Strip and in Libya.