Tuesday, December 2, 2008
There is this: Muslim organisations deny burial to slain terrorists
A grieving Mumbai mourns the dead. At least 179 Indians and foreign nationals were gunned down in cold blood in a terrorist attack that has raised controversy and several questions.
And now questions are being raised over the fate of those nine men who unleashed the carnage and were gunned by the security forces.
Muslim organisations in Mumbai have decided that Muslim cemeteries in Mumbai, where unclaimed bodies are usually buried, will not open its doors for the last rites of these urban jehadis.
"The killing of innocents is against Islam. They are bringing shame to 25
crore Muslims of India. These men are not Muslims. Why should we give them place anywhere? There is no place for them in our hearts and in our cemeteries," said Hamid Abdul Razzak, president, Dawat-e-islami.
Unprecedented events demand an unprecedented response. And this time the community has gone beyond merely condemning terrorism. It's shutting its doors on those who claim to act in their name.
Determined to deny the terrorists the martyrdom they seek, Muslim organisations have written to senior Mumbai police officials as well.
"The cemetery should not allow the police to bury the nine dead terrorists in their premises," said Ibrahim Tai, president, Muslim Council Trust...
These Muslim Organizations have and deserve honor for their action. They value life and not death. I'm waiting for the condemnations from the rest of the Muslim world
Precisely, Indian Muslims are not to be too readily confused with Arab, Persian, Punjab and other Muslims. Those Indian Muslims are still, obviously enough, worth being applauded, but unthoughtful assumptions should be avoided.
(Also, as something of a historical tangent, Gandhi's advice to German Jews, in the immediate wake of Kristallnacht in 1938, to essentially accept the fate Hitler represented at that time and based upon a purportedly ennobled religious pacifism, was in large part based upon his conversations with Indian Muslims. It's more nuanced and detailed than that - Gandhi was counseling German and other Jews to stay in their countries of birth rather than advance Herzl's vision - but that captures the gist of it.)
Wow! This could be the first openly defiant act against "Islamic terrorism."
"Most Muslims are not terrorists!" is a cry heard over and over since 9/11.It's true, but it's a statement that has been difficult to believe for victims of Muslim terror, and for those who fear becoming future victims. This is especially true when so many Muslim leaderes have refused to condemn the terror or even acknowledge the Muslim attackers as terrorists. By their silence, their omissions, they have invited the perception that they, and other Muslims, could be co-conspirators in the terrorism. We do not know each other.
The Ethic Soup blog has an excellent article on the Mumbia aftermath and the controversy regarding the burial of the 9 terrorist gunmen. To read, go to:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/12/indian-muslims-refuse-mumbai-burial-for-muslim-terrorists.html#more
Sharon McEachern