Islamic scholars criticize bin Laden burial at sea
Associated Press correspondent Hamza Hendawi reports:
Muslim clerics said Monday that 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 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 aboard a ship.
"The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don't think this is in the interest of the U.S. administration," said Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon.
A U.S. 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.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters.
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 — aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
But the Lebanese cleric Mohammed 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 Sept. 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, according to Islamic tradition.
"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 about bin Laden's burial. "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 the Saudi-born bin Laden at sea was not forbidden if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial.
"The land and the sea belong to God, who is able to protect and raise the dead at the end of times for Judgment Day," he said. "It's neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden's body."
Clerics in Iraq — where an offshoot of al-Qaida is blamed for the death of thousands of people since 2003 — also criticized the U.S. action. One said it only benefited fish.
"If a man dies on a ship that is a long distance from land, then the dead man should be buried at the sea," said Shiite cleric Ibrahim al-Jabari. "But if he dies on land, then he should be buried in the ground, not to be thrown into the sea. Otherwise, this would be only inviting fish to a banquet."
The Islamic tradition of a quick burial was the subject of intense debate in Iraq in 2003 when U.S. forces embalmed the bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons after they were killed in a firefight. Their bodies were later shown to media.
"What was done by the Americans is forbidden by Islam and might provoke some Muslims," said another Islamic scholar from Iraq, Abdul-Sattar al-Janabi, who preaches at Baghdad's famous Abu Hanifa mosque. "It is not acceptable and it is almost a crime to throw the body of a Muslim man into the sea. The body of bin Laden should have been handed over to his family to look for a country or land to bury him."
Prominent Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said bin Laden's sea burial was designed to prevent his grave from becoming a shrine. But an option was an unmarked grave.
"They don't want to see him become a symbol, but he is already a symbol in people's hearts."
Comments
I'm proud to be an American! Born & Raised! It disgusts me to read about all of the muslims that claim that America disrespected Islamic tradition by burying OBL at sea. You know, it isn’t really respectful or lawful to mass-murder thousands of Americans either. OBL deserves absolutely ZERO respect from Americans or the World! Didn’t muslims world wide disavow OBL (including his family), and claimed that he wasn’t a true muslim? If he was not a muslim, then what does Islamic tradition have to do w/ his burial?? Everyone w/ a brain knows that he was a muslim, and was following the koran to its letter; "kill the infidels"...sounds real loving and peaceful doesn't it? I’m sick of the double standards from the outspoken muslims. Where are the “true” muslims to discredit those that say OBL deserved a more respectful burial? Silence in this matter is an endorsement of what is being said by the outspoken. Selah (stop and think about that).
I won’t even say what I think OBL deserved as a burial. He is getting what he deserves now, in hell…(where all of us who have committed just one sin deserve to be)…
Posted by: Anonymous | May 3, 2011 11:58 AM
The U.S. government did the best it could under difficult circumstances. Note that the thousands who died at the World Trade Center, including hundreds of Muslims, did not receive a proper burial due to the actions of Osama. Nor did the U.S. contractors whose bodies were burned and hung from a bridge by AQI forces in Falluja. This is not intended to fan the flames but to instill a sense of proportion.
Posted by: SJ | May 3, 2011 2:04 PM
A proper Islamic burial and should we have invited his family for the event too? What nonsense. Osama will still be enshrined--there are people across the Muslim world who will worship this man as a prophet, particularly now that he dead. The Catholic beatify their Popes--why not the militants, their killers and evil geniuses? That he got decanted in some sea will not make a difference to the myth makers and fable fabricators. The militants of Islam will write their own history of this man and recite it to their children until he turns into one of those illuminated saints, far removed from the killer he was in real life. And the American govt thinks this won't happen if there is no landmark to identify his grave? We all need our idols to worship--even the Islamists, who profess to repudiate idolatry. For a while there, the Islamic world was entranced by this creature. He was going to bring back the caliphate remember? What a fall for a notorious terrorist! This is how they all go out, the high and mighty. Reduced to rubble by an enemy as implacable and vengeful as they themselves. If you are a nobody enjoy your status free status with no one hunting for you over land and over sea--- being a nobody, bask in the bliss of its anonymity.
R ANON
Posted by: Anonymous | May 3, 2011 2:37 PM
"The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial" If we really wanted to humiliate muslims, then we should have poured pig blood on his body! which is not a bad idea.
Posted by: Scott57 | May 4, 2011 1:54 AM
Scott57,
The Navy Seals are apparently nobler than you. They seem to have restrained themselves. I suppose that's why they were sent out to draw the curtain on Osama as opposed to you.
R Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | May 6, 2011 9:12 PM
Considering that the likelihood of there being the Hell that (Clay) Anonymous would rely on to give this murdering pig his just rewards, is NIL, I think Bin Laden should have been ground up in a meat grinder, mixed and packaged in pig feces, shipped to Newark, NJ, and processed through the city's sewage treatment plant.
Posted by: Robert Littel | May 6, 2011 11:19 PM
Great solution if your looking to pour gasoline on a fire.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 9, 2011 3:04 PM
Littel out of curiosity what actual evidence are you using to come up with your probability of NIL.
Maybe you could also reconcile your view of death to doing anything to a lifeless body could be just rewards. Frankly I find your just rewards inconsistent with what you reverently profess to be logical and fact.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 9, 2011 4:50 PM
Anonymous you seem to forget that gasoline costs almost 4 dollars a gallon and there is a gas shortage now in Iran and Libya, two countries where oil is supposed to flow like milk and honey. Pouring gasoline on a conflagration--Robert would never do that, Anonymous, unless you in your preposterous primness, needled him and vexed him-- needling and vexing being your special gifts, don't you think it's time for you to find newer talents to showcase to your favorite nemesis Robert?
R Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | May 10, 2011 12:57 AM
That comment about gas on a fire was mine. I must have forgotten to put my id on it. Is Bobby your little brother? You sure come to his rescue like he is. Well at least your response is a little more creative then what I’d expect from him. Bobby needs no vexing or needling to say something inflammatory and stupid. It’s a gift or talent. A gift which the likes of Limbaugh and Olbermann also feel the need to share with the world.
Posted by: rino | May 10, 2011 1:05 PM
R Anon I simply asked a question? Maybe you could explain how questioning Littel's the logical basis for his statement is vexes him. Littel is no more a nemesis than Clay, Frank Dingle, you or others I've exchanged posts with. In this case I asked a simple question which for someone using logic and reason shouldn't be difficult to answer. I couldn't help but notice that rather than supply an answer you chose to change the focus from what I asked to me personally. Well at least your use of vocabulary is original even if your strategy isn't.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 10, 2011 3:38 PM
Arguing with (Clay) Anonymous is like playing chess with a pigeon. He knocks over all the pieces, craps on the board and then turns to his brood and declares victory, but that is to be expected when arguing with a bird-brain.
Posted by: Robert Littel | May 11, 2011 12:06 PM
Littel there was no argument simply two questions. How shocking you didn't answer either. Instead you resorted to your ad hominem strategy. Here's another question which I’m sure you will ignore. Can you explain on how my asking those questions even comes close to that ridiculous analogy of yours?
While using abusive attacks has allowed you to drive off most who question your dogmatic and illogical rants it won’t work on me. I’ve seen far worse by far more intelligent individuals.
No need to bother answering the questions your response told me all I need to know.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 11, 2011 3:52 PM