Ahmed Abu Laban, the most prominent imam in the group, said on Friday he condemns the violence but he insisted the uproar has brought a better understanding of Muslim values in the West.
“The volcano was inside,” he said at a mosque in northern Copenhagen. “Now it’s erupting, and after the volcano there will be peace again.”
Muslims do not understand Europe, and Europeans are reluctant to learn more about Islam, Abu Laban said, calling for more dialogue.
“We shall talk in Denmark. We shall talk in New York. We shall talk in Geneva ... and they will listen to us that we believe in God.”
Abu Laban, a Palestinian immigrant, is a leading figure in the Islamic Faith Community, which is part of a loose Danish network of 27 Muslim organisations that turned to Muslim countries for help in the conflict over the cartoon issue.
Experts say the grouping represents about 10 per cent of Denmark’s 200,000 Muslims. The exact number of followers is unclear, as is its leadership structure.
Public opinion in Denmark turned against the group after several of its leaders went on trips to the Middle East in December, carrying a dossier with the cartoons from Jyllands-Posten and other images they said were offensive to Muslims.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen accused them of giving Denmark a bad name, saying he was ‘stunned’ to learn about the trip.
The leader of the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party, Pia Kjaersgaard, went a step further, accusing the group of conducting a defamation campaign against Denmark.
Group leaders have said they sought outside help because they found it hard to make their voices heard in Denmark.
“We distance ourselves from the violence. We still don’t think it’s because of our protest that people some places have used violence,” said Ahmad Akkari, a spokesman for the group.
Mr Akkari said he was part of a four-man delegation to Lebanon, and also visited Syria on his own. Another delegation went to Egypt.
He said blaming the visits for igniting the violence was absurd.—AP