Islam came from Arabia. When it broke out of its shell in the desert the first place it went was to The Byzantine world. Byzantium was past its prime and well into decay. The Christians of the Byzantine recorded the event as an Arabic invasion. They were wrong. It was Islam.
Records of the invasion of Eastern Europe name the Turks as the invaders. They were wrong. It was Islam. Again with the invasion of Spain records show the invaders were the Moors. They were wrong. It was Islam. There is a commonality here. The scholars were incapable of or unwilling to even correctly name the invaders. It recurs and always the result is the invader is misnamed. Why?
Mohammad killed every single intellectual and artist who opposed him. Mohammad is the perfect man. His ancestors did exactly as he had done because Allah had decreed it should be so. The why here is fear. It was and it is fear that drove the majority of the media then, as now, not to make or reprint the Mohammad cartoons, not from some sensitivity.
Fear is the basis for ignorance. It does not foster learning, prosperity, or innovation. But fear alone is insufficient to explain it all. What accounts for the nearly psychotic aversion of Islam? Even beyond fear is the realization political Islam is profoundly foreign. Islam is a civilization posing as a religion. Religion is incapable of describing the totality of Islam.
What is the same and what is different?
Western Civilization and nearly all religions in the world have a common ethical basis. Islam does not share such an ethical basis. A Unitary ethic is foundational to all of our politics and ethics. All that is not Islam adheres to some form of the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you.
The basis of the Golden Rule is recognition; all people are the same. We are not equal because we have unequal abilities. Despite that, all people want to be treated as human. We all want to be equal under the law. People want to be social equals.
It is on the basis of the Golden rule that we believe in the equality of humans. From it springs tolerance, freedom of speech and expression. On the basis of the Golden Rule, we ended slavery and we treat men and women as political equals. The Golden Rule is a unitary ethic. All people are to receive the same treatment. All religions have some version of the Golden Rule except Islam.