For the government of one small European nation, the new year begins with a deepening crisis: growing anger in the Islamic world over a newspaper's decision to publish cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed.
The Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten last fall published 12 caricatures of Mohammed, causing an uproar that continues to build more than three months later.
Muslims consider any images of the prophet who founded Islam in the seventh century to be blasphemous.
The published cartoons showed "Mohammed" in various settings. One depicts him wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with its fuse lit, while another has him with eyes blacked out and carrying a large, curved knife, flanked by two women in top-to-toe burqas.
The reaction from Muslims, both in Denmark and elsewhere, was swift. Protest demonstrations in November drew thousands of Muslims, who account for three percent of the country's 5.4 million people.
Jyllands-Posten reported receiving death threats and several of the cartoonists went into hiding.
The Morocco-based Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says its 51 member states will boycott Denmark because of "the aggressive campaign waged against Islam and its Prophet."
Earlier, Juste said: "If we apologize, we go against the freedom of speech that generations before us have struggled to win."