Buried at Sea According to Islamic Custom?

[mjgkramer]

That's what the news is saying. When we were living in Oman, we were told that Muslims are buried on their side with the body facing Mecca. That's hardly possible if OBL was dumped at sea.

[beagledave]

Not so much an Islamic custom to bury at sea, but it IS an Islamic custom to bury within 24 hours. No nation would want his body, so that was the natural choice.

Makes sense to me.

[Gutenberg]

Bingo beagledave. US says it asked the Saudis to accept the body and they refused.

[$tevie]

Nobody would want a potential shrine to OBL on their land. This makes the most sense in my opinion. Plus I like the idea that he Sleeps With The Fishes.

[Mac1337]

I find it humorous to barge in somebody's home, shoot him in the head then fret over whether he was or was not buried according to Islam. It could be argued that he was not a muslim any way.

[mjgkramer]

My comment was that to bury a Muslim at sea was to deprive them of being able to face Mecca, which is an important part of their burial customs. Another thing that we were told was that although they place headstones on the graves, often just pieces of unadorned rock, their name is not placed on them because Allah knows who they are.

[Mac1337]

Looks like everybody is now an expert on Islamic burial laws. Don't be surprised that in different Islamic countries they do it differently

[Chakravartin]

I wonder how far they went in observing the rituals for the deceased. Do you think they bathed and shrouded him?

I believe that Sharia makes it obligatory for the family of the deceased to take his debts upon themselves, even if it would leave them destitute to repay those debts. Does this imply that the Bin Laden family owes restitution to the families of his victims?

Saudi Arabia -- where a lot of the Bin Ladens live -- puts people to death for failing to follow Sharia law. Just sayin'.

[beagledave]

Dakota wrote:
I find it humorous to barge in somebody's home, shoot him in the head then fret over whether he was or was not buried according to Islam. It could be argued that he was not a muslim any way.

Really?

You find it "humorous" that the U.S. took an additional step to avoid pissing off (unnecessarily) scores of Islamic followers (who we're also trying to work with in the war on terror)?

Foreign policy genius you are.

[mjgkramer]

Dakota - Some more so than others. At least I lived in an Islamic country for four years, saw their graves, and talked to the locals about the customs. Not an expert, but at least I have first hand knowledge.

If you do a Google search, you will see that burial facing Mecca is one of their customs. I'll help you with this link.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=muslim+...cing+mecca&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35