Burial a ‘violation of Islamic tradition’

MUSLIM clerics have said Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against US targets.

Though there appears to be some room for debate over the burial, a range of Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.

Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship. “The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don’t think this is in the interest of the US administration,” said Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon.