Colorado Muslim Society At Odds With Founder Over Tsarnaev Burial Offer
DENVER (CBS4/AP) - Officials with Colorado's largest mosque on Tuesday repudiated a Muslim leader's offer to bury suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a Denver-area cemetery, saying it's the obligation of the man's family or Muslims in Boston to decide where he is buried, not an organization a thousand miles away.
Colorado Muslim Society Chairman Khaled Hamideh said Tuesday that Sheikh Abu Omar Almubarac approached the mosque's governing council over the weekend with a proposal to bury Tsarnaev in one of two Denver-area Muslim cemeteries. While Denver Muslims and Almubarac condemned the bombings, Almubarac said he proposed the local burial out of adherence to Muslim teachings and offered a traditional Muslim burial for Tsarnaev - no headstone or casket.
"I offered to bury the person when I heard the so-called Muslims of Boston, they refused to bury him," Almubarac told CBS4.
Almubarac founded the organization that built the east Denver mosque, but he holds no official position within the mosque. He says no human can or should judge another, only God can.
"Well, the cemetery is my organization, our organization, and we have to deal with it ourselves," Almubarac said.
Hamideh said the council declined to take up the matter because the Muslim obligation falls on those closest to the body.
"It's not up to me that I have to fly 1,000 miles away and find a way to bury (Tsarnaev)," Hamideh said. "There's a family or it's the obligation of the Muslims in the area. If none, then it's the next city, the next state."
The Colorado Muslim Society says Almubarac does not speak on its behalf. Hamideh condemns the actions by Tsarnaev and adds that it's the obligation of Tsarnaev's family or Muslims in Boston and nearby to make burial arrangements.
The Colorado Muslim Society Board of Directors released a statement saying "it condemns all acts of violence. The conduct of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is abhorrent and contrary to every principle and belief that underlies the purpose of the Colorado Muslim Society."
"I don't give a damn about what he says, or what anyone else says. As far as I'm concerned, I speak for myself," Almubarac said.
Almubarac's message has been sent although he admits he has not been in contact with anyone in Boston.
There is a Muslim cemetery in Denver and in nearby Bennett.
Tsarnaev's uncle Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., has been unable to bury his nephew in Massachusetts because of protests.
Worcester, Mass., funeral home director Peter Stefan said more than 100 people in the U.S. and Canada have offered burial plots for Tsarnaev. But officials in the cities and towns where the graves are located have said no. The city manager in Cambridge, Mass., where Tsarnaev lived, has urged his family not to ask to have him buried there because the attention would make it difficult for residents trying to get back to their lives.
Tsarnaev's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she wants to bury Tamerlan in her native Dagestan, but Russia is not allowing her to bring back the body.
A spokeswoman with Service Corp. International that owns the Olinger Hampden Mortuary and Cemetery in Denver says organizations that own the burial rights in the cemetery decide who's buried there.
(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
