The Akkari-Laban dossier () is a 43-page document which was created by a group of
Danish Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
cleric
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
s from multiple organizations set out to present their case and ask for support from Islamic leadership in Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere, in the
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, ) began after the Danish newspaper published twelve editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005 depicting Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in what it said was a response to the deb ...
.
Among the leadership of the Danish-based "European Committee for Prophet Honouring", formed as an
umbrella group
An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...
of Muslim organizations were
Imam
Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...
Ahmad Abu Laban
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 ...
of the
Islamisk Trossamfund and
Akhmad Akkari, the spokesman of the group. Danish
Sheik Raeed Huleyhel was named head of the group and signed the petition letters.
History
The first delegation of five, headed by Mohamad Al-Khaled of The Community of Islam, landed in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
on 3 December 2005 and returned 11 December 2005. Among the people the group met on their visit to Egypt were: The General Secretary of the
Arab League
The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...
Amr Moussa
Amr Moussa (, , Amr Muhammad Moussa; born 3 October 1936) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the Secretary General of the Arab League, Secretary-General of the Arab League, a 22-member forum representing Arab World, Arab states, from ...
, the Egyptian
Grand Mufti
A Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is a title for the leading Faqīh, Islamic jurist of a country, typically Sunni, who may oversee other muftis. Not all countries with large Sunni Muslim populations have Gra ...
Ali Gomaa, the Sheik of Cairo's
Al-Azhar
Al-Azhar Mosque (), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic Islamic core of the city. Commissioned as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970, it was the first mosque established in a city that ...
university
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (; 28 October 1928 – 10 March 2010), also referred to as ''Tantawi'', was an influential Islamic scholar in Egypt. From 1986 to 1996, he was the Grand Mufti of Egypt. In 1996, president Hosni Mubarak appointed him as ...
and Muhammed Shaaban, an advisor to the
Egyptian Foreign Minister. This meeting was arranged by Egypt's ambassador to Denmark,
Mona Omar Attia, later criticized by the Danish foreign ministry for adding to the unrest by alleging that Islam was not an officially recognized religion in Denmark, and transferred from her post at Copenhagen.
The second delegation, comprising four Danish Muslims headed by Sheik Raeed Huleyhel, travelled to
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
on 17 December 2005 and returned to on Denmark 31 December 2005. In Lebanon they met the Grand Mufti Muhammad Rashid Kabbani, top
Shiite
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...
Sheikh
Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah,
Maronite
Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...
Church leader
Nasrallah Sfeir
Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir ('; ; ; 15 May 1920 – 12 May 2019) was the 76th List of Maronite patriarchs of Antioch, Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and the Whole Levant and head of the Maronite Church from 1986 to 2011. He was made a Car ...
. During that time, Imam Ahmed Akkari also visited
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
to present their case to Grand Mufti Ahmed Badr-Eddine Hassoun. Furthermore, a smaller delegation traveled to
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
while individuals visited
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
,
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
,
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
, and
Qatar
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
, where Abu Laban briefed Sheikh
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi (; or ''Yusuf al-Qardawi''; 9 September 1926 – 26 September 2022) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn ...
of the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
.
At a 6 December 2005 summit of the
OIC, with many heads of state in attention, the dossier was handed around by the Egyptian foreign minister
Ahmed Abul-Gheit on the sidelines first, but eventually an official communique was issued.
The dossier consists of several letters from Muslim organizations explaining their case, multiple clippings from Jyllands-Posten, multiple clippings from ''
Weekendavisen
''Weekendavisen'' (meaning ''The Weekend Newspaper'' in English) is a Danish weekly broadsheet newspaper published on Fridays in Denmark. Its circulation (as of 2007) is approximately 60,000 copies, about ten per cent of which cover subscription ...
'', and some additional images that, according to the dossier's authors, had been sent to Muslims in Denmark.
The dossier appears to have been assembled and added to until some point after 8 December 2005, with the first lobbying visits to Egypt having taken place before finalization. Several pages contain hand written notes, mostly translations from captions of cartoons. It is unknown if these were already present in the dossier or are later additions.
Content
The dossier contained such statements as the following:
* We urge you
ecipient of the letter or dossierto — on the behalf of thousands of believing Muslims — to give us the opportunity of having a constructive contact with the press and particularly with the relevant decision makers, not briefly, but with a scientific methodology and a planned and long-term programme seeking to make views converge and remove misunderstandings between the two parties involved. Since we do not wish for Muslims to be accused of being backward and narrow, likewise we do not wish for Danes to be accused of ideological arrogance either. When this relationship is back on track, the result will bring satisfaction, an underpinning of security and the stable relations, and a flourishing Denmark for all that live here.
* The faithful in their religion (Muslims) suffer under a number of circumstances, first and foremost the lack of official recognition of the Islamic faith. This has led to a lot of problems, especially the lack of right to build mosques
..* Even though they
he Danesbelong to the
Christian faith
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, secularization has overcome them, and if you say that they are all infidels, then you are not wrong.
* We
uslimsdo not need lessons in democracy, but it is actually us, who through our deeds and speeches educate the whole world in democracy.
* This
urope'sdictatorial way of using democracy is completely unacceptable.
Experts' view
Experts, including Helle Lykke Nielsen, who have examined the dossier said that it was broadly accurate but contained a few falsehoods and could easily have misled people not familiar with Danish society, an assessment which the imams have since agreed to. Some mistakes were that Islam is not officially recognised as a religion in Denmark, that the cartoons are the result of a contest, and that
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the prime minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the Secretary General of NATO, secretary general of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became ...
in his role as Prime Minister gave a medal to
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (; born 13 November 1969) is a Dutch and American writer, activist, conservative thinker and former politician. She is a critic of Islam and an advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, opposing forced mar ...
(he gave one in his capacity as party leader of the Liberal Party). The imams also claimed to speak on behalf of 28 organisations, many of which later denied any connection to them.
[Hansen & Hundevadt, 81.] Additions such as the "pig" photograph may have polarised the situation (the association of a person and a pig is considered very insulting in Islamic culture), as they were confused for the cartoons published in the newspaper.
Later, it was discovered that the pig photograph was from
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
, from coverage of
La Pourcailhade
La Pourcailhade (also known as La Fete du Cochon or Festival of the Pig) was a pig festival that was held each year in August in the town of Trie-sur-Baïse, in the Hautes-Pyrénées department of south-western France. It was first held in 1975 a ...
, a French farming festival. The person in the photograph would have been a farmer poking fun at himself. As for the other extra picture and the drawing, the authors of the file have never been willing to say where they came from.
Muslims who met with the group later said Akkari's delegation had given them the impression that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen somehow controlled or owned ''Jyllands-Posten''.
References
Sources
The complete dossier (PDF, colour, 11.8 MB file)* Another source for the complete dossier
monkeydyne.com* Danish translations of the introductory letter, and a letter to Islamic ambassadors, and a letter to government ministers
Ekstra Bladet* Complete translation of the dossier into Danis
Politiken
{{Depictions of Muhammad, state=autocollapse
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy