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Hidden masterminds triggered explosion of protests Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/07/wcart07.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/07/ixnewstop.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/07/wcart07.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/07/ixnewstop.html
How clerics spread hatred over cartoons
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent and Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 07/02/2006)
As world leaders pleaded for calm in the Mohammed cartoon row yesterday, the Danish Muslim leaders who set the crisis in motion insisted that they had been trying to promote a "dialogue of civilisations".
They also angrily denied allegations from moderate Muslims and European intelligence services that hidden "masterminds" triggered the sudden explosion of protests, a full four months after 12 cartoons of the Prophet were first published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
Ahmed Abu Laban is the most prominent of a group of Danish imams and activists who toured the Middle East late last year, seeking to "internationalise" their campaign of protest at the cartoons, after deciding their complaints were falling on deaf ears back home.
Speaking from his office at the Waqfs mosque in Copenhagen, Mr Abu Laban said that the sudden explosion of anger at the end of last month was due to the rapid success of a "grass-roots" consumer boycott against Danish dairy goods and other exports.
Mr Abu Laban, a 60-year-old imam of Palestinian origin, also credited the hardline "Salafist" television stations based in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, such as al-Majd and Iqra, with a "big influence" in fomenting the trade boycott.
"It was the swift and decisive sanctions of the boycott. Keen Muslims responded, and found it was a good chance to show their love of the Prophet. And the amount of Danish trade [in the region] is so large that the echo was quickly heard in Denmark. It was a grass-roots thing, though nobody is denying the role of the mosques. They have loudspeakers, and the people listen."
He denied claims from European intelligence and security sources that the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist opposition group banned in Egypt and other Arab nations, had worked hard to whip up Muslim anger over the Danish cartoons.
One Danish Muslim dele-gation was sent to Cairo to meet the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and the grand mufti of Egypt, and to al-Azhar university, where it met the grand imam, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi.
Mr Abu Laban also tried to lead a delegation to Qatar, to meet the influential cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose fatwas, or religious rulings, are considered binding by many Muslims.
But he said the meeting was called off, and denied that Mr al-Qaradawi was a hidden hand behind the protests, despite the Qatar-based cleric's call, last week, for a "global day of anger" over the cartoons. "The idea of a mastermind is very annoying to me," Mr Abu Laban said.
Sheikh al-Qaradawi was "too busy" to see the Danish delegation, as he was preparing for a major meeting of the 56-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Nonetheless, the Danish imams were sharply criticised by their own prime minister, Anders Rasmussen, for touring the Middle East with a 43-page dossier outlining what they called the racism and Islamophobia suffered by Muslims in Denmark.
Mr Rasmussen said he was "speechless", especially after it emerged that the dossier contained three extra and highly obscene images the delegates said were sent to Danish Muslims as hate mail.
But Mr Rasmussen may have aggravated the dispute by refusing last October to meet ambassadors from Muslim countries - a decision publicly criticised by 22 retired Danish diplomats.
Mr Abu Laban's reputation is at an all-time low among many Danes, after he condemned the consumer boycott on Danish television but told the al-Jazeera channel he was "happy" about it. His conduct led Mr Rasmussen to complain about "people talking with two tongues".
Mr Abu Laban was keen to stress his moderation yesterday. Danish Muslims were not looking for a victory or confrontation over the government, or the press, he said. "The whole story is about dialogue of civilizations."
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