Minutes after President Obama stepped away from the podium announcing that Osama bin Laden had been killed, pundits began to speculate.
What will happen to the body? Will post-mortem pictures be released? Will Al-Qaeda retaliate or crumble?
While we still don’t know the exact status of Al-Qaeda, we do know there will not be pictures and the body was buried at sea, according to U.S. officials.
And as many Americans celebrate his death, there is reason to question the decision to cast his body out to sea.
Some officials claim the decision came in an effort to adhere to Islamic practice.
“There is a requirement in Islamic law that an individual be buried within 24 hours,” said John Brennan, a counterterrorism advisor at a news conference. “There were certain steps that had to be taken because of the nature of the operation. We wanted to make sure we were able to do that in the time period allotted for it.”
And while burial within 24 hours is in compliance with Islamic code, disposing of a body at sea may violate the code, known as Sharia law.
“I believe in Muslim tradition, we only bury one at sea if they die at sea,” said Mahmood Dahri, a Muslim who studied religion at Loyola.
Dahri says that if a Muslim dies on a journey, there is justification in throwing the body overboard to avoid decomposition. Muslims believe Allah can find a soul, even in the depths of the ocean, in that case.
However, it may be that burial at sea was simply easiest.
U.S. officials also say the decision was made, in part, because no country was willing to take custody of the body. Another obvious reason is that this way there is no grave or burial site that bin Laden supporters can turn in to a memorial.
“I think, more than anything, it was just easier and safer to get rid of the body in a place no one could visit,” Dahri said. “And truthfully, with the exception of bin Laden’s people, I doubt many Muslims will raise much of an issue with it.”
And Dahri may be right. Many Muslim Americans were quick to commend the mission that resulted in bin Laden’s death.
“We are relieved that justice has not been denied even if it has been delayed,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director for the Center for American Islamic Relations-Chicago’s. “This goes to show that the way to fight terror is through good intelligence, and surgical operations, and not military surges abroad, or the choking of civil liberties at home.”
In fact, many are not concerned with the burial of bin Laden’s body. Instead, they are hopeful that the death of bin Laden will end some of the misconceptions people have had about Muslims since the attacks on Sept 11.
“We are relieved that the person who caused so much pain and suffering to so many innocent people, and who caused so much misunderstanding of Islam, is gone,” said Amina Sharif, communications director for CAIR-Chicago.
Dahri agrees that the end of bin Laden could mean the end of at least some negative associations people have with Islam.
“Do I think people will completely understand our religion now? No,” he said. “But, I do think that the fact that everyone, Christians, Muslims, whoever, can unite in his defeat, it might help.”
