Buried at sea: How Bin Laden's body was washed by U.S. military and cast into the water from an aircraft carrier

By Rachel Quigley
3rd May 2011

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Muslim clerics rage that Osama bin Laden did not receive a proper Islamic burial
The U.S. used multiple means to positively identify bin Laden before burial
Two Pentagon officials say the burial was videotaped and could be released
One report said bin Laden had a 'massive head wound above his left eye where he took bullet, with brains and blood visible'

Osama Bin Laden was buried at sea with hours of his death in accordance with Islamic tradition, the White House revealed today.
But some Muslims reacted with fury today after they accused U.S. authorities of failing to adhere to strict Islamic rules for burial.
Meanwhile many Americans are likely to baulk that the man behind 9/11 was given a burial in the first place, believing he had no right after denying thousands of innocent victims theirs.

Ship: The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier took Osama bin Laden's body to the North Arabian sea where they disposed of him following Islamic traditions

Muslim clerics are predicting revenge attacks against American targets because of the way the government decided to dispose of the leader's body.
A wide range of Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.

Gone but not forgotten: Muslim clerics are predicting revenge attacks against American targets because of the way the government decided to dispose of the leader's body

Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship far from the coast.
A U.S. official said the burial decision was made after concluding that it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government asked Saudi Arabia - where bin Laden was born - to take his remains, but the government declined.
There was also speculation and concerns that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.
The Pentagon confirmed that the body was placed in to the waters of the Arabian sea after adhering to the customs - which call for a speedy washing, wrapping and burial of the corpse - aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
But Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric in Lebanon, said it should not have been done in this way: 'The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don't think this is in the interest of the U.S. administration.'
The haste has also been questioned, as the U.S. has not always observed the 24-hour rule for Muslim burials. In 2003 the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay were embalmed and held for 11 days before they were released for burial.
Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, said about bin Laden's burial, said: 'They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam. If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it.
'Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them.'