The bodies of nine Islamic militants killed while attacking Mumbai in November still lie in a public morgue there. Indian Islamic leaders have refused to bury them in a local Muslim cemetery, saying terrorists “have no religion” and do not deserve a religious funeral. Although India suspects the militants came from neighbouring Pakistan, Islamabad refuses to take the bodies back as this could presumably undermine its claim to have no link to the gunmen. Indian officials say they still need the bodies for their investigations into the Nov. 26-29 massacre, in which 179 people were killed, but those inquiries will end some day. What should the Indians do with the bodies then?
A U.S. historian has come up with a proposal that would dispose of the bodies without requiring Pakistan to take them. Leor Halevi, a professor of Islamic history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote in the Washington Postthat India should cremate them and scatter the ashes in international waters, as Israel did after executing the Nazi commander Adolf Eichmann in 1962. He notes this would be an un-Islamic method of burial and would avoid a permanent grave that could become a memorial for other militants. He writes:
“If Indian Muslims can agree, then, that the terrorists died as non-Muslims and that burning their bodies is the optimal solution, they simply need to urge the government to dispatch the corpses to the crematorium after ruling on their lack of religion.
“Cremation would neither shame the bodies of dead terrorists, nor haunt the minds of would-be terrorists, as powerfully as would a symbolic inversion of standard Muslim rites. But it would convey an effective, reasonable and humanistic message to the world: that a Muslim who commits terrorism dies excommunicated, as an infidel.”
Is this the answer?
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[...] Mixiya News Do dead terrorists lose all right to any respect? I ask this because my post Should India cremate Mumbai militants, spread ashes at sea? last week has prompted a surprising wave of comments suggesting these corpses should be desecrated. [...]
- Posted by Do dead terrorists lose all right to any respect?Why is everyone having this discussion? Just bury the bodies in unmarked graves. Don’t denote any religions ceremony with them.
- Posted by ChuckFirst we don’t want to show any respect to them, second we really don’t know what religion they belong to. Don’t make it a issue.
Frankly, Tom, I was incensed by the title “Should India Cremate Mumbai Militants, Spread Ashes At Sea?” The title suggests that you are asking if it would be a good thing to do. Israel cremating Adolf Eichmann was a method of getting rid of the body in a manner that was suitable to them and different from their tradition. Perhaps what you did not realize was that in a country where there are a majority of Hindus, in a country that looks at scattering the ashes in the sea as a way of lending the body some serenity, just like the sea, in a country that has just witnessed crazed fanatics massacring individuals in the name of jihad, in a country where, thankfully even the muslims have rejected the idea of giving them last rites, what kind of sentiment is being expressed by giving them the same kind of rites that was for example recently given to Gandhi’s ashes (scattered in the sea). In my opinion the thing to do is send the bodies to Pakistan, which recently admitted that Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani, and if they want, they can perform the last rites with full honours. I hope you understand what I was trying to convey. I rest my case.
- Posted by SampatSampat, why don’t you read the post first before writing a comment? It was very clearly stated that this was a suggestion made by Leor Halevi, a professor of Islamic history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and that he proposed it in an article in the Washington Post. The purpose for writing this post was to start a discussion of Professor Halevi’s idea. It also said that Halevi suggested cremating the bodies and scattering their ashes over international waters because that is the way Israel disposed of Adolf Eichmann after they executed him. Did Israel give Eichmann a Hindu cremation? And what about all those people in Europe and the United States who are cremated and whose ashes are scattered in forests, on mountains or over the sea? Are they being given Hindu funerals as well? Cremation belongs to many cultures. There is more to a Hindu funeral than simply burning a body and dumping the ashes somewhere. Do you really see no difference between the way Eichmann was disposed of and the way proper Hindu funerals are held?
- Posted by Tom HeneghanWhat you are suggesting is a very dangerous thing Tom Heneghan. Passing away rituals like burial and cremation are performed by sanction of a religion. You are suggesting to cremate and scatter the ashes in the sea - in the Hindu way - of people who hate every religion in this world but theirs. What message will it send? That the terrorists were Jehadi’s who came to wage war on India and were rewarded by a cremation to give peace to their souls in the Hindu manner. How did you even come up with this idea and what is the purpose behind writing such a post? Just as animals are not given any religious send off, the terrorist who had fallen to the level of lower animals do not deserve one. I am glad the Islamic world has not accepted their bodies and a good idea would be to airdrop their bodies into Pakistan wrapped with the Pakistani flag, like mitchell so aptly suggested
- Posted by sampat