my date with the president s daughter: Remains of the dead terrorists

Reuters Religion editor Tom Henegan has broached the debate about the dead remains of the 26/11 terrorists. Last week, Leor Halevi, who teaches Islamic History at Vanderbilt University, discussed the idea of cremating the remains of the dead terrorists. Two weeks ago, discussing a Mumbai court’s decision that rejected another accused terrorist’s request to bury his colleagues’ dead remains, I pressed on the need to keep the burial plans anonymous, lest the matter evolve into martyr memorials for some.

So far, several options have been considered or suggested in the media. Here they are in no particular order or preference:

1. Cremations - since such practice is not accepted in Islam, this will assert and reinforce that though the terrorists may have been Islamic jihadists, their actions were Unislamic and against the basic/peaceful tenets of Islam.

2. Cremations followed by scattering the ashes in international waters (as Israel did to Adolf Eichman) - Some believe that this would convey the international nature of the terrorism

3. Burial with pigs - There have been unconfirmed reports (probably rumors) about Russians burying the Chechen terrorists in pig’s skin, conveying a vengeance on the dead terrorists, since the religion they claimed they came from would find this absolutely abhorrent and unacceptable.

4. Throwing the dead remains to jackals and crocodiles - More than a few have suggested such novel methods to dispose of the terrorists’ bodies.

5. Proper Islamic burials - And then there is a group of people who believe that any of the above ways would desecrate the bodies and that proper burial methods need to be used as the terrorists are now dead. This group believes that it is just an undignified thought to think of dead remains of any human beings in a derogatory or demeaning way, and any negativity should have ended with the deaths of the terrorists.

Until there is some order to this chaotic debate, the dead remains of the Mumbai terrorists continue to share morgue space along with dozens of other dead Mumbaiites who will temporarily be hosted there. Here is the real question. Does what we do with the terrorists’ bodies, say something about them or something about us? Is there anything wrong in being angry with evil persons and murderers even after their deaths? Is it incumbent upon good people to forgive dead bad people and to respect their dead remains?


Source: indiatime.com