"We lost one of our best friends and brothers," said Imam Khalil Jafar Mushab, of the Islamic Cultural Center in Copenhagen.

"It is a great loss for the community and his mosque."

Abu Laban, a Palestinian immigrant who emerged as Denmark's leading Muslim Imam, became involved in the media crisis that accompanied the Muslim world's uproar caused by the publication of blasphemous cartoons ridiculing prophet Muhammad (PBUH) last year.

He accused Denmark of being disrespectful of Islam and Muslim immigrants.

The 12 drawings, one of which depicted the holy Prophet wearing a bomb in his head, harmed the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world.

Islamic law prohibits the depiction of prophets for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Once asked by The Associated Press about the ridiculous cartoons, first published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Imam described them as an attempt to "insult" and "degrade" Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"There was no point but mere mockery," he said.

Abu Laban grew up in Egypt, where he was educated as an engineer and graduated in the year 1969. He then moved to the Persian Gulf where he worked in the oil industry and then to Nigeria, where he contributed to Islamic projects in education, before finally immigrating to Denmark in the mid-1980s.