Jan. - March 2006 
Year 12    No.114

Cover Story


The Cartoon Controversy

 

"History will give us credit"

The controversial Danish imam defends his campaign to publicise the offending cartoons

BY LAMIA RADI

MANAMA: The controversial Danish imam accused of stirring uproar in the Muslim world over cartoons of
the Prophet Muhammad has defended his actions, saying they were aimed at forging peace, not causing bloodshed. "History will give us credit because of our efforts to keep Europe away from any further violence," said Ahmad Abu Laban, the leader of the Islamic Community in Denmark, in an interview with AFP.

Abu Laban, who is accused of instigating a mass campaign against Denmark in the Arab-Muslim world which sparked deadly riots that killed more than 50 people, said the protests were not the start of a clash of civilisations. "Some people would presume it is the beginning of a clash of civilisations, but we call it the engagement of civilisations," said Abu Laban. He was speaking on the sidelines of the "International Conference for the Defence of the Prophet" organised by Muslim religious leaders and being held Wednesday and Thursday (March 22-23) in Bahrain.

Abu Laban brought the cartoon matter to Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the top Islamic scholarly institution, shortly after caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. Abu Laban and other Danish imams then took a 43-page dossier on a tour of the Middle East, including the 12 controversial cartoons and three other pictures that had been sent to Muslims by anonymous people elsewhere.

"We sent our delegation to Egypt, we were trying to expand the platform of dialogue to the concerned people and more countries," he said. In his view, Denmark became the focal point of Muslim rage because of the refusal of Danish leaders to heed the Muslim point of view in the controversy that pitted western values of free speech against religious beliefs. "Denmark paid for the Islamic-European conflict," said Abu Laban, the leader of the Muslim Faith Society in Copenhagen.

Despite widespread calls for a formal apology, the Danish government refused, citing its belief in protecting freedom of speech. However, the editor of Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which initially published the cartoons, eventually issued a broad apology.

Abu Laban stressed that Muslims in Denmark, who make up about three per cent of the population, suffer discrimination and that he was made a "scapegoat" by the Danish press for his role as a Muslim community leader. "We suffer marginalisation... In the subconscious of most of the leaders in Denmark, they reject us. This is the name of the game. They don’t like to deal with us like partners," he said. "Our centre (Muslim Faith Society) is the most important one," he said. The Danish press "cannot attack somebody who is not known, so they decided to choose me as a scapegoat," he said. "I predicted that the government would face trouble and would search for a scapegoat."

"We are in the focal point in Denmark, under constant attack by the global media. We are here because it has become a global issue for Muslims," said Abu Laban. "This conference is not meant to expose or blackmail Denmark, it is a rather progressive attitude on how Muslims can be united in this noble cause, to honour and to guarantee the respect their prophet deserves."

Abu Laban also blasted Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for his "ineffective" response to the crisis.

(Courtesy: Agence France Presse, The Daily Star; March 25, 2006.)

http://www.dailystar.com.lb


[ Subscribe | Contact Us | Archives | Khoj | Aman ]
[ Letter to editor  ]

Copyrights © 2002, Sabrang Communications & Publishing Pvt. Ltd.