Less than 24 hours after the death of Osama bin Laden and his sea burial, people are asking: did he deserve to have his religious beliefs respected? Do we owe that to a monster who has murdered thousands of civilians in multiple countries?
Answer: we don't owe it to bin Laden. We owe it to the Muslim faith.
To have refused to respect Muslim burial beliefs would have said nothing about our opinion of the man but everything about our opinion of Islam. To follow its customs only when convenient and associated with people we like isn't respecting it.
And it wasn't like respecting his burial customs inconvenienced us. To deny him a Muslim burial would have been motivated entirely by revenge and pettiness, to give one final insult after death. That's not who we are, or at least it's not who we should be.
Well said. I’ve seen the news showing a lot of people in the streets celebrating his death, and it makes me think of how Americans responded when people were celebrating in the streets after Sept 11. I get that many were celebrating that he had been brought to justice, and not celebrating the violence that achieved it, but I do find it hard to celebrate anyone dying, including an enemy.
Showing his body respect for his religion was important, and the right thing to do. I’m glad they were able to follow through on everything in a timely manner without turning it into a circus, similar to when Saddam Hussein was hanged.
I agree with you but I do think it’s human nature to find joy in the suffering of others. If you really look back to things like the gladiators you can see the depravity of people. You can even see it in most of our on lives in the circle of kids around a fight on a play ground. I think that is why so many people want a picture of Osama bin Laden. It’s not out of the search for justice but death. We as a culture don’t talk about it and as such we seem to be obsessed with it.
I saw what the US said about observing Muslim tradition by washing the body, wrapping him in a white sheet and saying the Muslim words before “easing his body into the sea” (in a weighted bag).
I had two questions about it. The first being does this really comply with Muslim tradition?
The second was just how do you ease a body into the sea when dropping from a carrier’s flight deck 100′ above the waterline?
I’ve seen Muslims argue both sides of the issue as to whether it was an appropriate treatment of the body. So I’m guessing whoever our government asked said it was acceptable, although others disagree with it. Everyone agrees it’s not a common burial for a Muslim, but an awful lot of Muslims live in places where a sea burial just wouldn’t make any sense.