At his blog, Andrew Bostom reviews a Washington Times report that strongly suggests Osama bin Laden was, prior to burial at sea, given a funeral in accordance with the navy’s protocols for funerals for Muslim military personnel. If this is so, it would have entailed the ceremonial washing and wrapping of the corpse by another Muslim — symbolic of the cleansing away of the decedent’s sins. Those gathered at the service, presumably naval and other U.S. government personnel aboard the ship, would then have been required to face Mecca as Islamic prayers were recited, including the following:
O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, pardon him, grant him security, provide him a nice place and spacious lodgings, wash him (off from his sins) with water, snow and ice, purify him from his sins as a white garment is cleansed from dirt, replace his present abode with a better one, replace his present family with a better one, replace his present partner with a better one, make him enter paradise and save him from the trials of grave [sic] and the punishment of hell.
Dr. Bostom goes on to discuss another disturbing aspect of all this which is not covered in the Washington Times story. The naval protocols also call for recitation of the opening sura (or chapter) of the Koran. If this was done, it should have included verse 1.7, which includes an eternal curse upon Jews and Christians — as Bostom verifies with citations to authoritative commentaries on Islamic scripture.
Specifically, Allah is asked to guide Muslims on the “straight path,” which is “the way of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace [i.e., the Muslims], not of those who have earned your anger [i.e., the Jews], nor of those who went astray [i.e., the Christians].” As the commentaries Bostom draws on elaborate, Jews are deemed to have earned Allah’s wrath by ignoring and killing his prophets, while Christians are seen as having gone astray by indulging in such religious excesses as deifying Jesus, a prophet.
Is this what happened? We will only find out if the Obama administration releases the video footage of the funeral and burial. Since the government has already acknowledged that bin Laden was buried at sea, there would seem to be no good reason for withholding the video (with the understanding that the faces of any military personnel and identifiers of any sensitive locations could be obscured for security purposes).
I don't have a problem with Muslim military personnel praying that Osama would be forgiven. Eternal punishment is more horrible than I would wish on anyone incluing Stalin, Hitler, Mao or Osama. Even if you would demand they be punished 10 million years for every death they caused, an eternal punishment is still many times worse. Eternity is a long time. Osama is no longer capable of causing us harm. Afterlife punishment for him serves no U.S. interest.
What does bother me is the possiblity that non-Muslim U.S. personnel would be required to participate in a Muslim ceremony. Freedom of religion means the freedom to refuse to participate as well as the freedom to participate. I would not expect Jewish or Muslim soldiers to be forced to recite the apostle's creed as part of a Christian funeral.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnly Obama and his admin could turn something as great as finding/killing Bin Laden into an almost completely tarnished accomplishment with their tortured, twisted, PC viewpoint. It's adolescent thinking on display. May we please have some grownups in 2012?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou know, I really don't give a rat's behind how much the pander to a *dead guy's* religion. The important thing is he's *dead*.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcept for the verse 1.7 thing, I don't see that the prayer ceremony would be a big deal. Actually might set a good example. Mentally review the old movie footage of US sailors saluting kamikaze pilots whom they had just shot down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYep. I'm amazed. You're spending more time nitpicking things that does not matter than you did enjoying the fact that we've killed a monster that really needed killing.
I do not care about foolishness like this. It is small. Please move on to actual issues.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs that really any worse than the Christian assertion that all Jews and Muslims are going to Hell because the don't accept Jesus?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan't say that I really see the point of this post. Are you saying that the Navy shouldn't have given him a Muslim burial?
I think that shooting him in the face pretty much sent the message. Anything else is just window dressing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse""God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things.
Right now I am so far behind, I will live forever.""
The people diverting the discussion from the ideology and educations harvesting terrorists like Osama Bin Laden will live forever:
Did they demonstrated to put an end to Islamist ideology?
Did the Islamists provide a proper burial to people of all religions when killed while?
*Bombed while fighting airplanes
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse*Riding public busses and U tubes
*Dining in restaurants
*Traveling trains
The above is only a short sample list
Must confess am astonished by the sheer malice and bigotry of this post. What are you trying to say, sir? If oner were to extend your logic - Muslim prayer should never be used by the US military, even if - God forbid - there were a Muslim soldier KIA. Because all the objections you have to the prayer would ally there too
Given this, I assume, you also object to Muslim-Americans serving their country in the military.
I respect your past achievements a lot but you are way out of line, sir. Bigotry has no place in the political discourse of the Right. You disgrace our ranks.
Regards
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Navy should not have given him a Muslim burial. If to be buried at sea, his body should have been tossed UN-ceremoniously overboard. Had all of the bone fragments of our 3000 dead been found and properly interred, I might have thought about it. But just thought about it. Bin Laden deserved it no more than Hitler deserved the ceremonial teutonic burial with a pyre and goose-stepping attendees that I am sure he would have liked.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot saying this is accurate, but would put an interesting spin on it all.... but someone mentioned on the john batchelor show the other night that they were hearing that osama was actually dumped in the mountains instead of ocean. Which, if accurate, would just mean that the funeral, like everything else post-action... was done to try to impress the islamic community.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven granting Andrew's interpretation that "earned your anger" is code for Jew and "went astray" is code for Christian, it's hard to see where you find the "eternal curse" on them. There's nothing more in the first sura. It just ends after:
5. Guide us (O Lord[Allah]) to the path that is straight,
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse6. The path of those You have blessed,
7. Not of those who have earned Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.
In combat it isn't that rare that a combatant shows respect to an opponent who has shown exceptional bravery, especially the farther back in history one looks. Chivalry played a big roll in that. Guerrilla "bushwackers", by contrast were usually shot on the spot after capture. Bin Laden wasn't a brave or gallant warrior. Rather he was a cowardly bushwacker of innocent civilians. It upsets me to no end that he was afforded a respectful Islamic funeral. Obama said that Al-Queda perverts Islam, so why give him this? Was Timothy McVeigh buried with full military honors? At least he won a Bronze Star in Desert Storm. If Islam and barbarism are two sides of the same coin, then we should show no respect for it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf OBL received the funeral described by Mr. McCarthy, complete with the public denigration of Christians and Jews, then it's understandable that the White House won't be releasing those photos (or video). Military personnel standing on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, ordered by their Commander-in-Chief to act as Muslims on behalf of an evil monster, reading from the Koran and renouncing their Christian and Jewish brethren, all for the sake of political correctness, is not the picture President Obama wants voters to have in their minds on their way to the polls in November 2012.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis really doesn't seem like a big deal. Your attempts to make the Obama administration look tone-deaf and aloof to the threat of terrorism and Islamism evaporated the moment that bullet hit Osama in the face. So I guess you have to resort to thin gruel like this.
I guess it hurts to have the entire thesis of your book, Grand Jihad, categorically rebuked over a single weekend.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt would seem to me in this day of instant communication one should be able to find out the particulars on a vessel as large as the Vinson. They have a FaceBook page along with some form of internet access and I am sure that someone who reads NRO has a friend/relative onboard. Perhaps it won't be "official" but I would imagine that if this really is what happened, the men and women onboard would know. As I recall, friends who have served on large ships know pretty much all there is to know via the "scuttlebutt hotline" in a very short order.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnyone out there care to help illuminate those of us land-lubbers? (informally and anonymously of course)
Just like Mr. McCarthy to spread baseless speculation without any facts to back him up. Again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll be a bit pedantic here: The Navy does not pray, people pray. But was that prayer said? Sure, why not? The Muslim Chaplains pray that every day.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat sounds like it was handled the right way. We do not desecrate the corpses of our enemies, that's one of the reasons we're better than them. If part of the ritual involved insulting other religions, I agree it would be the appropriate thing to leave it out.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...there would seem to be no good reason for withholding the video..."
Oh my, the list of things done by the Obama administration for no good reason...
Look, the minute al Qaeda terrorists and other jihadist learned of this respectful bin Laden funeral, I'm sure they sat back and said, "You know, maybe we've been wrong all along about these infidel dogs..."
If *our mere existence* is sufficient to generate their motivations to kill us, and it is - all infidels must convert or die - there's not much worse we can evoke with photos or a simple dump into the sea, sans funeral rites and ceremony.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse