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Professor Suggests Cremating Bodies of Mumbai Terrorists

By Howard M. Friedman

As previously reported, Muslim cemeteries in India have refused burial to the bodies of the Mumbai terrorists, saying that their actions demonstrate that they could not be true Muslims. Vanderbilt University Professor Leor Halevi, in an opinion piece from the Washington Post reprinted today, says that burying the terrorists outside a Muslim ceremony in their battlefield clothing would be inappropriate. This is the method Islamic law prescribes for burying martyrs-- who do not need more to go to heaven. Instead, Halevi suggests that the best way to handle the bodies is to cremate them (a non-Muslim method of disposing of bodies) and then scattering their ashes at sea (to prevent creation of a memorial to the dead men and to indicate the international aspect of the terrorism problem).

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 03, 2009 (boomark / email).