Another Protest Led by Danish Imam Ahmed Abu Laban

By Evan Kohlmann

In recent days, a number of my colleagues--most notably Lorenzo Vidino--have helped reveal the deceptive behavior of the supposedly moderate Danish Imam Ahmed Abu Laban, who helped deepen anger in the Muslim world over a recent series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed by spreading additional offensive cartoons that were not originally printed by any European publication.  However, it should be noted that the latest controversial cartoons are not the only thing that Abu Laban has led vocal protests against.  In October 1995, Abu Laban led a group of 500 Muslim demonstrators in Copenhagen angrily denouncing the capture of Talaat Fouad Qassem, one of the most senior leaders of the notorious Egyptian terrorist organization Al-Gama`at al-Islamiyya.  The protest occurred as Al-Gama`at's spiritual leader Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman was nearing a conviction in the U.S. for his role in conspiring to wage a campaign of terrorism against civilian targets in the New York metropolitan area.  For further information, see my book Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe, pages 26-27, 149-154.

[Associated Press - October 6, 1995]: "Some 500 Muslims demonstrated Friday to protest the disappearance of a militant Muslim leader who went missing during a trip to Croatia last month.  Spokesman Ahmed Abulaban said Egypt, the United States and Croatia "are the beneficiaries" of the disappearance of Talaat Fouad Qassem who has been living in Denmark since 1992 as a political refugee.  Wanted by Egypt on charges of attempting to overthrow the secular government, Qassem was ordered out of Croatia on Sept. 18, and left for an unknown destination, according to Croatian officials.  Under President Clinton's anti-terrorism initiative, Qassem's name was put on a list of people to whom transfer of funds are to be blocked. The initiative also froze the U.S. assets of groups the U.S. deemed used terrorism to subvert peace activities.  Qassem also appears on a U.S. Department of Justice list of possible co-conspirators to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian religious leader, and nine other Muslims who have been convicted of conspiring to bomb the United Nations and other buildings in New York.  The demonstrators, including Qassem's pregnant wife Amani Farouk, went to the Croatian embassy where Abulaban, a Copenhagen imam, handed over a letter to a diplomat.  Before dissolving, demonstrators raised their fists and shouted 'God is Great' outside the downtown Copenhagen building... Qassem, 38, co-founded the outlawed al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which has been blamed for much of the violence in a three-year campaign by militants to restore strict Islamic rule."

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