 Some commentators believed that the controversy was used by Islamists competing for influence both in Europe and the Islamic world . Jytte Klausen wrote that the Muslim reaction to the cartoons was not a spontaneous , emotional reaction arising out of the clash of Western and Islamic civilisations . " Rather it was orchestrated , first by those with vested interests in elections in Denmark and Egypt , and later by Islamic extremists seeking to destabilise governments in Pakistan , Lebanon , Libya , and Nigeria . " Other regimes in the Middle East have been accused of taking advantage of the controversy and adding to it to demonstrate their Islamic credentials , distracting from their domestic situations by setting up an external enemy , and according The Wall Street Journal , " [ using ] the cartoons ... as a way of showing that the expansion of freedom and democracy in their countries would lead inevitably to the denigration of Islam . " 
