Christian woman reveals she coordinated the secret burial of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Jesus says to love our enemies:' Christian woman reveals she coordinated the secret burial of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev
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Christian woman today revealed that she helped authorities coordinate the secret burial this week of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia.
'Jesus says [to] love our enemies,' Martha Mullen, 48, told the Boston Globe's Wesley Lowery in an exclusive interview. 'So I was sitting in Starbucks and thought, maybe I’m the one person who needs to do something.'
Tsarnaev was buried under a shroud of secrecy Wednesday evening at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery in central Virginia, about 15 miles from Richmond.
Mullen said she coordinated the clandestine burial with the help of the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond after a number of cemeteries refused to take his body.
Within an hour of contacting the group, she got a response saying a plot had been found. So she called the officials overseeing Tsarnaev's burial and arranged to have the body, which was being held at a Worcester, Mass. funeral home, transported to Virginia to be buried Wednesday evening.
The development has infuriated some residents of the rural Virginia town as well as members of the area's Islamic community who say they weren't consulted in the decision.
Flowers are placed on the alleged burial site of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Doswell, Virginia
A flower is placed on what is believed to be Tsarnaev's grave. He was buried under a shroud of secrecy Wednesday evening at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery in central Virginia, about 15 miles from Richmond
'The whole Muslim community here is furious,' Imam Ammar Amonette of the Islamic Center of Virginia told the Associated Press. 'Frankly, we are furious that we were never given any information. It was all done secretly behind our backs.'
'Now everybody who's buried in that cemetery, their loved ones are going to have to go to that place,' he added.
News of the burial comes several days after a Massachusetts police chief went on national television to plead for help in finding a plot for the 26-year-old suspected bomber, as number of cemeteries and lawmakers in three states had turned down requests to bury his body.
'There is a need to do the right thing,' Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme said. 'We are not barbarians. We bury the dead.'
Meanwhile, the funeral home where Tsarnaev's body was being held had become the site of ongoing protests.
Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virignia
Mullen, a professional counselor who has a degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, said she was disgusted by reports of the protests and decided to take action.
She later called the Globe wanting to tell her story, according to the reporter who took the call.
Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, are accused of carrying out the April 15 twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a violent shootout with police on April 19 and his brother, who was injured in the gunfight, was captured in Watertown, Mass. after an 18-hour manhunt.
Tsarnaev's death certificate, which was released on Friday, showed that he was shot in the firefight and then run over and dragged by a vehicle. Police say it was Tsarnaev's brother who mowed over his body as he was making a getaway.
Tsarnaev’s body was claimed by his uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who asked that the remains be placed in a municipal cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., where Tsarnaev lived with his wife, Katherine Russell. But city officials would not allow that to happen.
Russell did not claim the body, which is why it was released to Tsarni.
Tsarnaev's mother, who maintains that her sons are innocent, wanted Tamerlan's body sent back to Russia, where he was born, but there was no certainty that Russian officials would accept the remains.
As authorities continued searching for a plot to bury the remains, they were repeatedly turned away. No one wanted to take responsibility for the body. Meanwhile, protests continued outside the funeral home where the body was being held.
The public was not notified that Tsarnaev's body had been moved until after it was transported from the funeral home Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, police officials announced that 'A courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased.'
On average, burials cost $6,000 to $10,000, which covers basic services of a funeral director and staff, including the casket as well as embalming and sanitation of the body, according to the Funeral Consumer Guardian Society, a consumer advocacy group.
Typically, the person who claims the body - which in this case would be Tsarnaev's uncle - pays these costs.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev's death certificate was released by the Massachusetts medical examiner Friday hours after it was learned that he was buried in Virginia
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322629/Revealed-The-body-Boston-bombing-suspect-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-buried-Muslim-cemetery-Virginia-woman-comes-forward-help.html#ixzz2SvKaH3wl
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Tamerlan Buried in a IMAN funded Cemetery
Major donors to IMAN, the Chicago-based group which organizes Muslims to impose their extremist values on America’s political process and in America’s inner cities. The other purpose of the group is to convert Blacks and other inner city residents to Islam and help those who’ve already converted remain Muslim.
IMAN is a project and donee of the pro-HAMAS/pro-Hezbollah Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) (which was involved in the Holy Land Foundation HAMAS fundraising), and it’s a project of Islamic Relief–the HAMAS/Al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood “charity” which finances jihad worldwide. IMAN is run and funded by White Sunni Muslims to harvest inner city Blacks to Islam, which is why IMAN also has many Black Muslims from the Nation of Islam among its ranks. IMAN has an operation called “Muslim Run,” which urges Muslims to only buy from Muslim-run businesses. IMAN was founded and is headed by Rami Nashashibi, a Palestinian Muslim extremist. And Iman hosts speakers like Dalia Mogahed, an extremist and agent of the Muslim Brotherhood with close ties to Barack Obama.
http://www.muslimlinkpaper.com/community-news/community-news/1679-%20Virginia%20Muslim%20Cemetery%20Offers%20Free%20Plots.html
| Virginia Muslim Cemetery Offers Free Plots |  |  |  |
| Community News - Community News |
| Written by Administrator |
| Saturday, 15 November 2008 14:16 |
Muslim Link Contributing Writer “Imam Siraj Wahaj stated in his speech at our fundraiser, ‘Some people send their children to Islamic school. Some people take their children to the masjid, but all of us will end up in the graveyard.’” stated Osman Javed, one of the Stafford community members that has struggled to purchase 80 acres of land for a Muslim cemetery. Last month, on October 19, they raised $110,000 dollars at their fundraising dinner for the purchase of these 80 acres in Stafford, Virginia. “What was vitally important was to purchase this land, while we are still able to do so. Who knows, with things the way they are going, whether we would be able to purchase land for a cemetery in the future,” said Mossadaq Chughtai, who has also been promoting the Muslim cemetery in Stafford. In 1996 several Muslims in the Stafford community realized the need for a Muslim cemetery. The only options available to Muslims was either to send their deceased family member back home, which was prohibitively expensive, or bury their family member in a non-Muslim cemetery. Initially, 7.5 acres of land was purchased and this cemetery became the first Muslim cemetery to offer free land for any Muslim burial. With the successful purchase of the additional 80 acres, it has become America’s largest Muslim cemetery. The entire purchase cost $540,000 dollars, which required a small loan. Therefore, although the property has been purchased, donations are still necessary for paying off the loan and the maintenance of the land itself. Both Brother Osman and Brother Mossadaq believe this amount of land will serve the Muslim community in the area for the next two generations, 60 to 70 years. When asked how this 87.5 acres could serve a Muslim community estimated at 350,000 in the tri-state area, Brother Osman stated, “Some Muslims still prefer to send their family members back home to be buried. There are other Muslims who want to be able to bury their families together. Since this cemetery offers free land for burials, it is first-come-first-serve and we do not allot the land ahead of time. Therefore, some families prefer to buy family plots from non-Muslim cemeteries. Then there are situations where children are really not practicing anymore and when their parents die, they don’t know how to bury them Islamically. When a spouse of a deceased Muslim is not Muslim, they also sometimes don’t bother burying the Muslim spouse in a Muslim cemetery. Just recently, there was a Muslim man who died here and he had no family. The government was going to cremate him. A Muslim brother heard about it, and some brothers got together and gave donations and we were able to bury him Islamically in the cemetery.” Brother Mossadaq stated that in the future portions of the land might be used for other projects.“In the future if we find we need an Islamic center or Islamic school, we can use this land. What was important was to get hold of it now.” Brother Osman stated, “Muslim communities in Gaithersburg, Frederick and Hagerstown are also trying to purchase land for Muslim cemeteries. The idea is growing and getting established.” [Editor’s note: A new Muslim cemetery, “Al-Firdaus Memorial Gardens” opened in Frederick, Maryland earlier this month. See Muslim Link issue, October 31, 2008] |
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