The lying, jihadist Danish imam who helped instigate the Mohammed cartoon riots by touring
the Middle East with bogus pictures it attributed the Jyllands-Post has died (hat tip: Sugiero).

Abu Laban had cancer:

Ahmed Abu Laban, Denmark’s most prominent Muslim leader and a central figure in last year’s uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, has died from cancer, his organization said Friday. He was 60.

Abu Laban died late Thursday at the Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen after battling lung cancer, said Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Faith Community.

“We are very sorry and we ask people to pray for him,” Ahmad said.

A Palestinian immigrant who became Denmark’s leading imam, Abu Laban was thrust into the international spotlight during the firestorm over the prophet cartoons, when he accused Denmark of being disrespectful of Islam and Muslim immigrants.

“Was thrust?” Actually, he thrust himself. And the AP report conveniently leaves out his role in manufacturing the outrage:

He angered many Danes by seeking support from the Middle East in his fight against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the controversial cartoons. Many blamed him and other Islamic clerics in Denmark for stirring up anger that triggered massive and sometimes violent anti-Danish protests in Muslim countries in January and February last year.

The 12 drawings, one of which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, offended many Muslims because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.

In an interview with The Associated Press before the protests broke out, Abu Laban described the cartoons as an attempt to “insult” and “degrade” the prophet.

“There was no point but mere mockery,” he said.

Here’s what the AP left out:

…the CT Blog revealed how a delegation of Danish Muslims, led by Copenhagen imam Abu Laban, toured the Middle East in December and showed fabricated cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a very offensive fashion, even though the pictures had never appeared on Jyllands Posten.

The controversy has now exploded in Denmark. Friday night Danish public television, DR, ran two interesting stories about Abu Laban, the man who organized the delegation’s trip to the Middle East. While the first profiled him, showing his extensive links to the Egyptian group Gamaa Islamiya, the second showed his double-talk. Abu Laban, in fact, was first shown speaking on Danish television condemning the boycott of Danish goods (in English), then shown interviewed on al Jazeera, cheerfully commenting on the effectiveness of the boycott (in Arabic).

Remember?

Meantime, one of those cartoon-protesting placard jihadists has been sentenced in Britain:

A 31-year-old man has been found guilty of stirring up racial hatred during a demonstration against the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Abdul Saleem, of Poplar, east London, had denied using threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour during the protest in London on 3 February 2006.

He was a “cheerleader” who had chanted slogans like “UK you will pay, Islam is on its way”, the Old Bailey was told…

…The British Telecom engineer was also captured on camera shouting “Europe you will pay with your blood” and “7/7 on its way”.

During the four-day hearing, father-of-five Saleem, of Mellish Street, admitted to the court the words could be seen as threatening but said that had never been his intention.

Father of five.

Paging Mark Steyn…

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