Anti-War.com & CBS News & Hamza Hendawi / Associated Press – 2011-05-03 19:47:21
Disposal of Bin Laden’s Body Sparks Debate
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(May 2, 2011) — Though the Obama Administration insisted that the disposal of Osama bin Laden’s body was entirely in keeping with Islamic practices, there was considerable question from two fronts over the move.
A hot topic of debate in the United States was whether or not it was appropriate to give bin Laden an honorable burial at all, with a number of people suggesting that the military ought to have desecrated his body.
On the other hand, despite White House assurances, some Muslim clerics have insisted that putting someone’s corpse in a weighted bag and hurling them into the sea isn’t strictly in keeping with Islamic tradition.
Some expressed concern that if he had been buried on land it would have provided a site for a shrine for his followers, while still others suggested there was a danger the body would be desecrated if it was buried on land. It seems less likely that anything will happen to it at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
Bin Laden’s Burial at Sea Followed
Islamic Practices, White House Insists
CBS News
(May 2, 2011) — With some Muslims decrying the manner in which Osama bin Laden’s was put to rest, the White House insisted Monday that the al-Qaeda leader’s burial by sea was in accordance with Islamic law under the circumstances of his death.
Bin Laden was killed during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Sunday. Hours later, the Obama administration said, he was flown to Afghanistan for a DNA test to verify his identity. His corpse was then washed in accordance with Muslim rituals and deposited into an unidentified location in the Arabian Sea.
According to White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, bin Laden’s remains were buried “in strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices.” Brennan said the administration consulted “appropriate specialists and experts” before making the decision.
“There is a requirement in Islamic law that an individual be buried within 24 hours,” Brennan told reporters in a press briefing on Monday. “There were certain steps that had to be taken because of the nature of the operation. We wanted to make sure we were able to do that in the time period allotted for it.”
“Going to another country, making those arrangements, requirements, would have exceeded that time period, in our view,” he continued. “And so, therefore, we thought that the best way to ensure that his body was given …an appropriate Islamic burial was to take those actions that would allow us to do that burial at sea.” Bin Laden’s native Saudi Arabia had refused to accept bin Laden’s body.
But some Islamic clerics argued on Monday that burying bin Laden’s body at sea violated Islamic law – and that it might provoke militants to call for revenge attacks aimed at American targets.
While there appear to be varying schools of thought on whether or not Islamic law permits burying a body at sea, a number of scholars have said such an action is only appropriate under “extraordinary circumstances” – and that bin Laden’s death did not qualify.
“They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam,” Mohammed al-Qubaisi, the highest religious law official in Dubai, said of the burial. “Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them.”
“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,” he added.
According to one school of thought, sea burials are permitted only when the person in question died on board a ship.
“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.”
Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb, a prominent Islamic scholar, condemned the burial as an act that goes against religious and moral values. According to El-Tayeb, Islam forbids the desecration of the bodies of the dead, irrespective of their beliefs and ideologies.
One possible deterrent for burying bin Laden at sea was the fear that had he been buried on land his grave might become a shrine or otherwise contentious symbol.
Nevertheless, some Islamic clerics have said that bin Laden’s burial may well serve as a source of future unrest.
“What was done by the Americans is forbidden by Islam and might provoke some Muslims,” said Abdul-Sattar al-Janabi, an Islamic scholar from Iraq who preaches at Baghdad’s 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.”
“They don’t want to see him become a symbol, but he is already a symbol in people’s hearts,” Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, also questioned the White House’s decision.
“To me, that didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said during an interview with conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, according to the Hill.
Islamic Scholars Criticize bin Laden’s Sea Burial
Hamza Hendawi / Associated Press
CAIRO (May 2, 2011) — 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 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 aboard 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.
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.”
Associated Press writers Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jamal Halaby and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.
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