Islam is opposed to burials at sea, a spokesman for Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority, said today after US officials said Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been given a watery grave.
“If it is true that the body was thrown into the sea, then Islam is totally against that,” Mahmud Azab, an adviser to the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, told AFP.
“Any corpse, if it belongs to someone murdered or someone who died of natural causes, must be respected. The bodies of believers and non-believers, Muslim or Christian, must be respected,” he added.
The Cairo-based Al-Azhar is the most prestigious centre of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world. Read more
I am unconditionally opposed to terrorism, as that takes away innocent lives. But, what bothers me in this whole affair is that no one is above the law, what we were repeatedly reminded when Bill Clinton had an affair, likewise no one is below the law. This extra-judicial killing of unarmed Osama also violates the articles of Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, I have provided the link on About Us page our site.