The controversy surrounding the Danish publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad dominated the world's press in early February 2006, providing an important global data source for exploring the key question of how mainstream journalism presents relations between Islam and the West.

This Carnegie Mellon study of 56 news stories on the controversy demonstrates that, despite the availablity of multiple framings of the conflict, mainstream journalistic coverage tended toward a stereotyped 'Clash of Civilisations' analysis, in which Muslims were represented as enraged and illiberal while Westerners were represented as liberal, rational, and fearful of Muslim rage.