Cairo, May 03: Cairo Muslim clerics said on 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 US targets.
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 US administration,’’ said Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon.
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 Lebanese cleric Mohammed called it a “strategic mistake’’ that was bound to stoke rage.
According to Islamic teachings, the highest honour to be bestowed on the dead is giving the deceased a swift burial, preferably before sunset. Those who die while travelling 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 at sea was not forbidden if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial. “And it’s neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden’s body.’’
“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. “The body of bin Laden should have been handed over to his family to look for a country or land to bury him.’’
Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said Osama’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.’’
The entire operation took about 50 minutes, according to senior defence official familiar with the situation.
“The body was washed and the placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag,” the official said. “A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, then the body was put into the water,” said the official.
–Agencies