US officials say Osama Bin Laden’s body was treated with respect and buried at sea, but some Muslims argue there was no good reason for not burying it on land.
Islamic tradition requires the dead to be buried as soon as possible, unless an autopsy is required.
The US military took this requirement very seriously, burying the body within hours.
“Traditional procedures for Islamic burial were followed,” an official said.
Religious rites were carried out on the deck of a US aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson. The body, shrouded in a white sheet and placed in a weighted bag, was then positioned on a flat board, tipped up, and eased into the Arabian Sea
After this first shot, The Blotter, external, he was shot again, to make sure that he was dead.
‬The body was then flown to Afghanistan and Bin Laden’s identity was confirmed. Officials say a DNA sample was taken that matched that of several other family members. Some sources say facial recognition technology was also used.
From Afghanistan, the body was, it appears, flown to the USS Carl Vinson.
“A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker,” a US defence official said.
US officials have given two reasons why a sea burial was chosen. First, that they did not want his grave to become a shrine. Second, that there was no time to negotiate with other countries to arrange a possible burial on land.
According to CBS News, Saudi Arabia refused to take the body, external. If correct, this suggests that an offer was made – and that had Saudi Arabia accepted the body, there would have been a grave, which could in theory have become a shrine.
However, ABC’s Jonathan Karl, writing before the burial was confirmed, external, painted a different picture:
“US officials tell me the last thing they want is for his burial place to become a terrorist shrine.
“To avoid that, an informed source tells me, the intention is to bury his body at sea – leaving no definitive location for the final resting place of his body.”
