Danish imam at centre of row over Prophet’s cartoons dies

Ahmed Abu Laban, Denmark’s most prominent Muslim leader and a central figure in last year’s uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, has died from cancer, his organisation said on Friday. He was 60.

Ahmed Abu Laban, Denmark’s most prominent Muslim leader and a central figure in last year’s uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, has died from cancer, his organisation said on Friday. He was 60.

A Palestinian immigrant who became Denmark’s leading imam, Abu Laban was thrust into the international spotlight during the firestorm over the prophet’s cartoons, when he accused Denmark of being disrespectful of Islam and Muslim immigrants.

He angered many Danes by seeking support from the Middle East in his fight against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the controversial cartoons. Many blamed him and other Islamic clerics in Denmark for stirring up anger that triggered massive anti-Danish protests in Muslim countries in January and February last year.

Born in Haifa, Abu Laban grew up in Egypt where he was educated as an engineer. He worked in the oil industry in the Persian Gulf and in Nigeria before emigrating in the mid-1980s to Denmark, where he emerged as a leading figure in the Copenhagen-based Islamic Faith Community, which represents about 10 per cent of Denmark’s 200,000 Muslims.

“To me in the very beginning, Denmark looked like utopia, perfect country,” Abu Laban told the AP. But he said his view gradually changed to Denmark being a nation gripped by fear of its growing Muslim immigrant community and its strong values.

“(Muslims) have values, they have identity and indirectly (Danes) assume that this is a threat,” he said.