A closer look at the Muhammad cartoon crisis illuminates some of the key issues that
were, and continue to be, at stake for the various actors in the public contestations over the
legitimate place of Muslims (and the Islamic tradition) in Danish society. Using a conceptual
framework developed by Axel Honneth, I suggest in this article that the cartoon crisis is part of
an ongoing struggle for recognition in Denmark, through which the terms by which Muslims
residing in Denmark are recognized as legitimate citizens/residents of Danish society are
negotiated—and on which Muslims may recognize the demands of Danish majority society as
legitimate. As much as the cartoon affair was an event that, as Palle Weis (2006) writes,
“suddenly” ruptured Danish society in 2005, it was therefore also part of a process that continues
to shape social actors and their relationships.