*Many of us have read about the family of Tamerlan Tsarnaev having difficulty finding a burial plot for him and if you read the comments by a lot of news readers, the commenters say things like: cremate him, dump him in a landfill, dump him at sea. The commenters argue that for a man who disliked the US so much, he shouldn’t be buried on US soil.
What disturbed me was the idea that several Muslim clerics in the greater Boston-area also refused to lead his namaz-e-janaza and to bury him in the way that a Muslim is required to receive his last rites.
My question: is it just or reasonable to deny a known and proven criminal his last Islamic burial rites? I’d love to hear your thoughts from both a religious and social perspective.
ummm, tricky. whatever crimes he committed he will be questioned and punished by God so what is the point in refusing a funeral when the guy is already dead?
It is ok to show your disgust or disapproval by refusing to lead the prayer. In fact that is a right thing to do, cause if we do lead the parayer then it may seem that we are ok with his crimes. How will you explain to the non msulim world about the guy’s burial rights as a muslim? You will end up endorsing the myth that islam is a religion of terrorisim.
I’m no scholar but I’m pretty sure denying the burial rites is a sin itself? Correct me if I’m wrong but I heard that Prophet saw did not attend funeral prayers for those who committed major crimes in order to deter others from committing the same crimes. As we can all understand, it must have been a huge deal to have Prophet saw present at one’s funeral and pray for him. So by not attending someone’s funeral, he was merely trying to highlight the severity of their crimes so that others would learn a lesson. However, he did NOT stop others from holding proper funeral processions for those people.
Taking the religion out of equation altogether, I still think it’s immoral to disrespect a dead body. And delaying the burial itself is disrespectful enough let alone “dump it in landfill” like a piece of trash. If it doesn’t matter what we do to a criminal’s dead body then why bother with humane methods of execution and all that jazz? Why not just throw them off a cliff to kill them and then leave the body there as food for animals?
Boss, we have bigger problem the terrorism. our feet are rarely on the ground.
Take the whole situation in one community country/society, WHO SHOULD TAKE CARE OF ONE DEAD BODY???
If you were doctor you see a person as patient nothing else, if you in burial business you do the job!!!
Even serial killers get bible read to them, and church provide them with visitation.
Tough one.
I would like to think that I would prefer that we leave judgement to Allah.
Having said that, the mosque will definitely face dire consequences by allowing the funeral to take place there as this would be seen as sympathizing.
As far as my personal beliefs go, I would like to see the local islamic association quietly give him a proper burial and namaz e janaza based purely on insaaniyat. However, I don’t believe this guy deserves a big jamat praying for his maghfirat, or anything above and beyond a basic, decent burial.
And yes, living as an American Muslim, I do also somewhat agree with TLK Bhaiya that I don’t want to see a sanctioned burial misconstrued as support or indifference towards his alleged crimes. The last thing we as American Muslims is more negative perceptions about Islam being the religion of terrorism.
I agree to this. No one has right to judge a person who died. Let that be between him and his God.
Arre logon tumhara kiya, main janu mera khuda jaane
This attitude is not new. Even Bulleh Shah was denied burial in Qasoor’s main graveyard by clergy, but now the distant place where he was buried is the centre of city.
That’s it, khatti, the community did not have to (and preferably should not) attend the funeral because that’s usually seen as a sign of respect for the deceased. But I feel like it was the responsibility of the Islamic centres to give the guy a simple and proper burial. I mean the mosques that have been attacked in America in the recent years were not attacked because they carried out funeral processions for a terrorist. The ignorant will always be ignorant. Like Monk said, if a Priest carries out a funeral service for a serial killer or a mass murderer, you cannot say that the Priest condones murder. So just give the dead body a respectful burial and move on. It’s between him and Allah now.
There are some situations wherein Islamically you can refuse a deceased’s burial rites. I tried to look it up quickly before replying but didn’t have too much success. Perhaps Lethal or someone else can help in looking it up. But Sehrysh to answer you question, refusal is an option and once we find the part stating so, maybe it’ll shed light on this specific situation.
DOSWELL, Va. — Officials in the county where the remains of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev have been buried say they were stunned to learn of the burial and they are looking into whether the law was followed in the process.
“As long as everything was done legally, there’s really very little we can do,” said Floyd Thomas, chairman of the board of supervisors of Caroline County. “What we would do is make sure that all of the laws regarding this particular burial were adhered to. If they were not, then I believe we would have to look at undoing what happened.”
Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa Jr. said he had alerted Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli about the incident, and was told Cuccinelli was looking into whether all laws were followed.
Tsarnaev was buried in a small Muslim cemetery in Doswell, a community about 15 miles from Richmond, the state capital.
