Protecting Bin Laden From Hell?

While US authorities have made it abundantly clear that they buried the jihadist mass murderer Osama bin Laden at sea "in accord with Islamic law", they have to date been noticably hesitant to provide more details about what exactly transpired on board the USS Carl Vinson.

But until the video of this unbelievable "funeral" is released, Anneke Green of the Washington Times has uncovered some truly disturbing information about the official US Navy policy regarding the burial of Muslims at sea. We do not yet know for certain whether this protocol was followed in the case of bin Laden, but it is logical to assume that it may well have been given the statements of the US Government, as given the fact that this is standard policy.

According to the "Navy Military Funerals" document (read it here - in particular pages 34-35), all those in attendance at a Muslim funeral on board a Navy vessel must face Mecca. They must recite from Sura al-Fatihah, the first chapter of the Qur'an, which is almost universally interpreted by Muslim scholars as cursing Jews and Christians (see but one example here), before reading a prayer including these words:

“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.”

They must then lower the body into the sea (as opposed to, say, dumping it like household rubbish) facing Mecca, while intoning:

"O Allah this is your servant who is now your guest, and you are the best of hosts. Forgive him and expand his entrance."

Green's commentary really sums up the moral perversity and farcical nature of this whole affair:

The families of those slaughtered by bin Laden—many of whom were Muslims—might not be happy to learn that the Obama administration may have considered it “appropriate” to ask Allah to “pardon” al Qaeda’s evil overlord. Or to petition him to not only let him into paradise but give him a nice, big house when he gets there, with a better family and wife (wives?). How will those families feel about the fact that this sociopath got a better burial than many of their dead loved ones, some of whose circumstances of death made them religiously ineligible for the prayers—or “religious remarks”—he received? The Pentagon’s official statement on his burial did not note whether bin Laden’s face was toward Ka’aba in Saudi Arabia, as the service instructs, but it did make clear that his body was “eased into the sea.”...

Sending in a SEAL team to blow off bin Laden’s head showed presidential leadership. The subsequent handling of the body and burial, however, raises serious questions about Mr. Obama’s dominant priority. The constraints involved certainly reveal why a sea burial seemed attractive. But if no other country would take his remains and they absolutely had to be disposed of within 24 hours, why didn’t we just tie his body to the back of the carrier (fantail), weigh anchor and see if there was anything left to dispose of by the time our service members were back in the arms of their loved ones? That sort of observance would have shown the respect he deserved.