Ahmad Abu Laban (; 1946 – 1 February 2007) was a Danish-Palestinian imam and the leader of the organization The Islamic Society in Denmark. He was a central figure in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Personal life Ahmad Abu Laban was born in 1946 in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, his family fled to Cairo, Egypt, and he grew up there. In 1969, he graduated as a mechanical engineer. In 1974, he married his great 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 then worked for 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. He publicly denounced terrorism and the use of violence to further the Islamic cause. Moreover, he was known to fight for social justice and help alleviate social ills, by preaching that Danish Muslims had a responsibility to better the society in which they were a part. On 19 January 2007, The Islamic Society in Denmark announced that Abu Laban had fast spreading cancer and that it was probably was lung cancer. Abu Laban died on 1 February 2007, aged 60. The love and devotion many Danish Muslims had for Abu Laban come to display at his funeral, where thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Copenhagen to engage in his Islamic funeral ceremony. At the time of his death, Abu Laban worked as a religious advisor with The Islamic Society in Denmark. According to the organization's website, he was a member of the "Co-ordination council of Imams" in Europe. Controversy Abu Laban has been declared persona non grata in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt because of his Islamist views. He had been a well-known figure 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. Gunaratna also accused Abu Laban of giving political and economic support to the Egyptian Islamist movement al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, which is considered as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. Muhammad cartoons controversy Abu Laban