Clerics say sea burial violates tradition
Source: Agencies |
May 4, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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Muslim clerics have said Osama bin Laden's burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against American targets.
Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial - as with many issues within the faith - a wide range of senior Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.
Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred on board a ship.
Bin Laden's burial at sea "runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs," said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.
A radical cleric in Lebanon, Omar Bakri Mohammed, said: "The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don't think this is in the interest of the US administration."
A US official said the burial decision was made after concluding that it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. There was also speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.
US President Barack Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial, and the Pentagon later said the body was placed into the waters of the northern Arabian Sea after adhering to traditional Islamic procedures - including washing the corpse - on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
But the Lebanese cleric called it a "strategic mistake" that was bound to stoke rage.
In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta warned that "terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge" the killing of the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. "Bin Laden is dead," Panetta wrote in a memo to CIA staff. "Al-Qaida is not."
According to Islamic teachings, the highest honor to be bestowed on the dead is giving the deceased a swift burial, preferably before sunset. Those who die while traveling at sea can have their bodies committed to the bottom of the ocean if they are far off the coast.
"They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam," Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, said. "If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it."
"Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances," he added. "This is not one of them."
But Mohammed Qudah, a professor of Islamic law at the University of Jordan, said burying Saudi-born bin Laden at sea was not forbidden if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial.
Clerics in Iraq also criticized the US action. One said it only benefited fish.
Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial - as with many issues within the faith - a wide range of senior Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.
Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred on board a ship.
Bin Laden's burial at sea "runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs," said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.
A radical cleric in Lebanon, Omar Bakri Mohammed, said: "The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don't think this is in the interest of the US administration."
A US official said the burial decision was made after concluding that it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. There was also speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.
US President Barack Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial, and the Pentagon later said the body was placed into the waters of the northern Arabian Sea after adhering to traditional Islamic procedures - including washing the corpse - on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
But the Lebanese cleric called it a "strategic mistake" that was bound to stoke rage.
In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta warned that "terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge" the killing of the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. "Bin Laden is dead," Panetta wrote in a memo to CIA staff. "Al-Qaida is not."
According to Islamic teachings, the highest honor to be bestowed on the dead is giving the deceased a swift burial, preferably before sunset. Those who die while traveling at sea can have their bodies committed to the bottom of the ocean if they are far off the coast.
"They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam," Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, said. "If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it."
"Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances," he added. "This is not one of them."
But Mohammed Qudah, a professor of Islamic law at the University of Jordan, said burying Saudi-born bin Laden at sea was not forbidden if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial.
Clerics in Iraq also criticized the US action. One said it only benefited fish.
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