Islamic scholars question bin Laden's sea burial

CAIRO (AP) — 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 More.. 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 that the burial decision was made after concluding that it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. There also was speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, did not say where the burial took place.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial.

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."...

www.liveleak.com...

here is the spot i got this from

reply to post by demontigny


Link?

Ex-tag/Quotes?

reply to post by demontigny


Wow they need to pick their battles.. I mean if Osama really was killed last night... they're lucky we didn't string him up and hang him on the Washington monument for all to see..

reply to post by Liquesence


i copy and pasted everything from the link.
and why hang saddam hussien for people to see and not osama bin laden??? why throw him into the see for noone to find ever

Originally posted by demontigny
reply to post by Liquesence

 

i copy and pasted everything from the link.
and why hang saddam hussien for people to see and not osama bin laden??? why throw him into the see for noone to find ever

Right, but you need to:

A) Put a source link in the post so that other members can reference from where you got it,

B) Use the ex-text button to quote the article showing that it is from another source and not yourself, cause there is this plagarism thing against which we must protect, and

C) Perhaps add commentary.

I, for one, would like to visit the original article.

Thnx.

Originally posted by DaMod
reply to post by demontigny

 

Wow they need to pick their battles.. I mean if Osama really was killed last night... they're lucky we didn't string him up and hang him on the Washington monument for all to see..

edit on 2-5-2011 by DaMod because: (no reason given)

Amen to that. Had I been in charge, I would have put his head on a pike in Lower Manhattan and would have displayed his pig wrapped carcas at the Pentagon.

Here's the Original Article:

A ssociated Press Article

Putting the body on display for the world to see would just fan the flames even more. Muslim law specifies burial within 24 hours. Granted, it all seems a little suspect and I guess we will never know whose body was really dunked in the ocean. They may still have Obama on ice or at the very least his head or a few fingers...

One thing is certain, the last thing that we wanted for Osama was a public trial that would have been used as a tool to rally their base and recruit more members. Now, he's out of sight if not out of mind.

FWIW here's what I found on a Wiki last night...see www.abovetopsecret.com...

Islam

The sacred texts of Islam prefer burial on land, so deep that its smell does not come out and the beasts of prey do not dig it out. However, if a person dies at sea and it is not possible to bring the body back to land before decay, burial at sea is allowed. A weight is tied to the feet of the body, and the body is lowered into the water. This would preferably occur in an area where the remains are not immediately eaten by scavengers.Also, if an enemy may dig up the grave to mutilate the body, it is also allowed to bury the deceased at sea to avoid mutilation.[3]

Yet today the same Wiki says this...

Islam

The sacred texts of Islam prefer burial on land, "so deep that its smell does not come out and the beasts of prey do not dig it out". However, if a person dies at sea and it is not possible to bring the body back to land before decay, burial at sea is allowed. A weight is tied to the feet of the body, and the body is lowered into the water. This would preferably occur in an area where the remains are not immediately eaten by scavengers.[3]

en.wikipedia.org...

Someone removed the bolded line. Hmm?



Here's the history of edits: en.wikipedia.org...

I'm not seeing which one did it There appear to be a TON of changes in that section. I have a screenshot.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


looks like this article has been edited, Hench the bolding works.

Originally posted by demontigny
reply to post by Liquesence

 

i copy and pasted everything from the link.
and why hang saddam hussien for people to see and not osama bin laden??? why throw him into the see for noone to find ever

They should have planted his arse on top of the obelix with two huge weights on both legs..
But don't worry they have imams on boards of the carriers for "proper" treatment

reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter


I know it's been edited. That was my point. A ton has been edited in that section.

The bolding is mine to show 1.) what was removed and 2.) the excuse they would have had for a burial at sea. Who removed it and why? I find this suspicious.

It's obvious to me Obama wants to start a war with the Muslims, he sure is doing his best to provoke one......and invading Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya is'nt enough?

Does Obama want a population cull? And/or is Obama trying to put the fear in to the Western world by upping the game "increased terror alert" for the USA, UK & Europe so those corrupt bastards give themselves more good reason to tighten security and humiliate the populas even more (TSA & Homeland Security etc) ???

He didn't behave like a religious Muslim, so why should he deserve an Islamic burial? He has damaged the viewpoint of Muslims all over the world with his radicalism, who cares about his burial?

reply to post by DaMod


They are lucky they didn't let the New Yorkers take care of it.

The whole argument that either this or that would fan the flames it ridicules. His followers will attack solely on the idea that he is dead, killed or what ever.
We could have politely smacked him with feathers and caused him to laugh himself to death, and have 72 actual virgins carry his body to a shrine and his followers would still retaliate.

Really... instead of say.. letting an independent panel of doctors go over the information and body to determine whether or not it really is Osama...

They dump the body over the side of a boat?

Where no one can ever re-analysis the body?

Worst gov cover up ever.