The catalyst? The arrest of three people Tuesday in an alleged plot to kill cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who drew one of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons that sparked the deadly protests across the Muslim world in 2006. On his blog, Jyllands-Posten cultural editor Flemming Rose posted a statement from Westergaard:

"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness. I have attended to my work and I still do. I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life. It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life. "

Rose notes that the cartoon for which Westergaard has been threatened -- Mohammed with a bomb in his turban -- has even been misinterpreted: "What the cartoonist wanted to say with his cartoon was that many people exploit the prophet to legitimize terror. However, the cartoon was widely seen as a depiction of the prophet as a terrorist."

In the wake of the arrests, it was heartening to see 17 Danish newspapers today unite in support of free expression and a free press, reprinting the original cartoons that caused such a furor. One was conservative broadsheet Berlingske Tidende, which did not originally publish the cartoons but joined in the mass publication today, accompanied by an editorial explaining their decision:

"Freedom of expression gives you the right to think, to speak and to draw what you like... no matter how many terrorist plots there are."

Left-leaning publication Politiken also chimed in:

"Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror."

Jyllands-Posten editor-in-chief Carsten Juste also released a statement:

"Deeply worried and for several months, the management of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten have followed the discreet efforts by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service to protect Kurt Westergaard from concrete murder threats. The arrests have hopefully thwarted the murder plans. We sympathize with Kurt Westergaard and his family who are forced to live under unreasonable pressure. It is appalling that as a reward a man who to the best of his ability goes about his work and carries it out in accordance with Danish law, the Danish media ethics code and Danish media traditions was demonized and had his life threatened. We are grateful to the Danish authorities for protecting our colleague competently and professionally."

IT ISN'T JUST IN DENMARK: Newspapers threatened for Mohammed references

(2006 File Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)