Religion: Muslim clerics refuse to bury Mumbai attackers

Yes, they did refuse.

This refusal to bury the Mumbai attackers is different. It is an original and bold protest against Islamist violence by religious authorities who would normally make sure any Muslim got a proper burial. “This is symbolically very important,” Mustafa Akyol, a columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News in Istanbul and an active Muslim blogger. "I’ve heard of imams declining to lead a prayer for the deceased because he was an outright atheist, but never of people being denied burial."

My friend Mustafa has expressed his own grief over the Mumbai horror as well.

Now, obviously at a certain point, the bodies of the dead - however they died - must be returned to the Earth from whose elements they took their substance and from whose forms they took their shape. Their souls return to the One who created them, and we can only pray about that, as best we know how.

But I am glad to see Muslim clerics speaking out against allowing terrorists and their supporters to define their religion - and their relationship to the rest of the world.

From Tom Denaghan's December 3 Reuters story, we also learn

By the way, this decision did not come out of the blue. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, one of India’s leading Islamic groups, endorsed a fatwa against terrorism in early November. More than 6,000 clerics signed the edict, which follows a similar one issued in February by India’s top Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband.

More by and/or about Mustafa Akyol here.