You have to squint at the fine print on a box of Lego to know that it comes from Denmark. But in the Middle East these days, Lego’s international style branding is not enough to escape the fast-spreading consumer boycott of Danish goods.

Much of the world’s attention over the past week has been on the violent protests - including those in Kenya, Malaysia and Turkey on Friday - against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that first appeared in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper. But in large parts of the Arab world, the consumer boycott of Danish goods is by far the most widespread popular reaction to the cartoons. Previous consumer boycotts in the Middle East (including the long-standing rejection of companies that do business in Israel) have been only briefly successful.