 However , Aurel Sari has since said that the special rapporteur 's interpretation was wrong and that " neither the decision to commission images depicting the Prophet in defiance of Islamic tradition , nor the actual content of the individual cartoons can be regarded as racist within the meaning of the relevant international human rights instruments " although " some of the more controversial pictures may nevertheless be judged ' gratuitously offensive ' to the religious beliefs of Muslims in accordance with the applicable case @-@ law of the European Court of Human Rights . " This means that the Danish authorities probably could have prohibited the drawings ' dissemination if they had chosen to . Randall Hansen said that the cartoons were clearly anti @-@ Islamic , but that this should not be confused with racism because a religion is a system of ideas not an inherent identity . Tariq <unk> said that the cartoons were essentially racist because Muslims are in practice treated as a group based on their religion , and that the cartoons were intended to represent all of Islam and all Muslims in a negative way , not just Muhammad . Erik <unk> said that while the cartoons did <unk> Islam in a potentially racist way , they ranged from offensive to pro @-@ Muslim so labelling them as a group was problematic . The Economist said Muslims were not targeted in a discriminatory way , since unflattering cartoons about other religions or their leaders are frequently printed . Noam Chomsky posited that the cartoons were inspired by a spirit of " ordinary racism " and that they must be seen in the context of Jyllands @-@ Posten agenda of incitement against immigrants in Denmark . 
