Ahmad Abu Laban

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Ahmad Abu Laban (Arabic: أحمد أبو لبن) (b. 1946, Jaffa, British Mandate of Palestine – d. February 1, 2007, Copenhagen) was the leader of the organisation called the Islamic Society in Denmark and a central figure in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

In 1948 his family emigrated to Egypt, and he grew up there. In 1969 he graduated as a mechanical engineer. In 1974 he married his cousin Inam; the couple had seven children. He studied Islamic theology with scholars in different Muslim countries. He was employed in the Persian Gulf oil industry from 1970 to 1982, and in a contracting company in Nigeria from 1982 to 1984. He contributed to Islamic projects in education in different states of Nigeria.

He emigrated to Denmark in 1984 and lived there for the rest of his life. On January 19, 2007 the Islamic Society in Denmark announced that Abu Laban had cancer, and that it probably was lung cancer.^[1] Abu Laban died on February 1, 2007, aged 60.^[2]

Contents 1 Last positions 2 Controversy 2.1 Muhammad cartoons controversy 2.2 Other controversial comments and citations 3 References

[edit] Last positions

Ahmad Abu Laban worked as a religious advisor with Islamic Society in Denmark. According to the Society's website, he was a member of the "Co-ordination council of Imams" in Europe.^[3]

[edit] Controversy

Abu Laban was persona non grata in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt because of his Islamist views.^[4] He was a well-known character in the Danish media for his often radical statements about Islam and the integration of immigrants into the Danish society.

Sri Lankan researcher Rohan Gunaratna, author of the book Inside Al Qaeda, has characterised Ahmed Abu Laban as an Islamic extremist. Rohan Gunaratna also accused Abu Laban of giving political and economic support to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian radical group that is part of Osama bin Laden's network.

At his Friday prayer April 5, 2002 Abu Laban called on his congregation to offer their lives in a jihad for the Palestinian cause.^[5]

[edit] Muhammad cartoons controversy

Ahmed Abu Laban became involved in the media crisis which erupted in Denmark after the issue of the Muhammad cartoons in the conservative newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In November 2005 he was one of the leaders of a delegation that toured the Middle East to ask for diplomatic support, one of the factors that sparked the widespread anger in the region in early 2006. Along with Akhmed Akkari, he authored the Akkari-Laban Dossier which was used on that tour.

Three additional images- allegedly sent to Abu Laban but never published - were added to the list of cartoons actually published in the dossier handed out during this tour. Ahmad Akkari has explained that the three drawings had been added to "give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims."

[edit] Other controversial comments and citations

• On August 21, 1994 Abu Laban was interviewed in Jyllands-Posten following a massacre committed by the Algerian terrorist organisation GIA that led to the murder of among others seven Christian Monks and a number of foreign tourists. Asked if he could condemn the massacre he replied: "Perhaps the tourists are spreading AIDS in Algeria just like the Jews are spreading AIDS in Egypt."^[6][7]

• In his Friday sermon immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA, he preached that "[he mourned the victims] with dry tears".^[8]

• Responding to Theo van Gogh’s murder, his response was publicly to criticise it. Not long after, he criticized the European abuse of free speech for the issue of the controversial Submission movie of the murdered Dutch film-maker.^{[citation needed]}

• When Amina Lawal from Nigeria was condemned to stoning, he refused to condemn the sentencing, considering he is not a judge.

• After a gang killing in Copenhagen, Abu Laban proposed to deter any vengeance killing by the payment of a sum of "blood money" amounting to DKR. 200,000 – or the equivalent of 100 camels, according to his calculation, in today’s currency, to prevent any revenge.^[9]

• Interviewed on Danish television he was asked if he respected Osama bin Laden, Abu Laban replied: "[Osama bin Laden] is a businessman and "freedom fighter" ", .^[10]

• "I call these people rats in holes" was his characterisation of the Danish liberal politician Naser Khader.^[11]

• In his Friday prayers on 5 April 2002 Abu Laban called on his congregation to offer their lives in a jihad for the Palestinian cause. Outside the mosque buses were waiting to take the congregants to a demonstration at Parliament Square, where they held up signs equating Judaism with Nazism,

and burned the Israeli flag.^[12]

[edit] References

1. ^ (Danish) Abu Laban critically ill with cancer
2. ^ (Danish) Abu Laban has died
3. ^ (Danish) Abu Laban at the Islamic Society in Denmark webpage
4. ^ (Danish) Abu Laban taler med to tunger
5. ^ The Stephen Roth Institute for the study of contemporary Antisemitism and racism, 2002-3
6. ^ (Danish) Jyllands-Posten 21 August 1994. "Like the Jews." Abu Laban interviewed
7. ^ Islamic Extremists and Their Western Allies on the Offensive against Free Speech in Denmark
8. ^ Abu Laban's dry tears after 9/11
9. ^ (Danish) Imam proposal for blood-money appals
10. ^ (Danish) Imam Abu Laban on Osama bin Laden
11. ^ (Danish) Abu Laban in his Friday sermon, February 11 2006
12. ^ Antisemitism and Racism, Denmark