Can someone explain the Tsarnaev funeral and burial situation?

Things are still raw and emotional, what’s not to understand? He’s still considered a terrorist to this country at this point.

Part of it is xenophobia, the other part is that the muslim community is distancing themselves because of the fear of the xenophobes turning on them should they show any sort of compassion and be labeled as conspirators. His body is the hot potato.

I was under the impression they were fedexing him back to Chechnya to be buried by his family.

@sinscriven See, I disagree about the xenophobia, we’re pretty much all of foreign descent in America, even here in the Bible Belt. He is foreign and he did spearhead a terrorist activity inside the US that killed and maimed US citizens, so to me it’s more specific towards him than in general against muslims.

I see no reason why he shouldn’t be sent back to his home country, perhaps the terrorists that trained him will do it up in grand style for hurting ‘the great Satan.’

@KNOWITALL : That is true that most of us are of foreign descent, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t perceive “the other”. I just don’t remember there being such a big fuss about where a corpse is buried when it comes to other domestic terrorists.

I’d agree on shipping him back, but i dont think he’d get a hero’s welcome, he’ll be just another forgotten and dispensable casualty in the eyes of who brainwashed him.

I do not understand this. He is dead. He needs to be buried.

I do not think the funeral home should have to pay for police protection.

I think people are acting oddly.

Who is having him buried? Last I heard, the mom’s location was unknown.

Doesn’t the city have a “Potter’s field” they could bury him in? As for the funeral home being charged for police presence, that’s absurd. As is the protest at the funeral home. It’s certainly not their fault!

Sending his body to some country where he will get a martyr’s send-off is a very poor choice. To avoid the demonstration, a cremation would be a good option although that may not be acceptable to the family for religious reasons. Either way his dead body is no threat to any American living or dead. The less fuss made about it the better.

@Dr_Lawrence I would agree with you on that actually.

Yep. People are pretty fired up. I suppose that might explain the actions of the few who might show up (Westboro Baptist-style) and protest. But it seems strange that those that are seeing this as a “foreign” attack are not willing to provide a model for what a modern civilization looks like. Protesting the funeral home that contains a corpse? I am stumped – and a bit embarrassed.

Maybe it’s a matter of what @sinscriven described – but really with only a handful of people. Maybe the rest of it is just fear that if you speak out against it – or choose to allow a corpse to be buried in your cemetery, that there will be negative consequences from this vocal minority.

If anyone here is somewhat sympathetic to the “don’t allow him a burial” or “protest his funeral” position, what is it in particular that leads you to this conclusion? Do you feel the same way about other “bad” people? What is your general reaction to a group like the Westboro Baptist Church?

@tom_g Westboro Church are not considered patriots by most of us (in any way!), and neither are these guys who killed and maimed Americans in Boston. I’m not fired up about it, but I don’t necessarily think they deserve to rest in peace either.

Hasn’t anyone considered cremation? No burial needed. If the Muslims don’t like cremation, it still should be no big deal to them, because as mentioned above, they are distancing themselves from him, and nobody wants to bury the body.

Local news has been reporting that a guy here is donating his burial plot to the bomber’s family.
People in this area are very upset, but the person offering claims his reason is simply because it’s the “good Christian thing to do.”

No one would be making even a peep about this if it were McVeigh or Lanza, both of which have a higher body count.
I wonder why thy are crying havoc over this guy…
No, actually it is perfectly clear: the fearmongering and propaganda is working perfectly.

Too late to edit, but I want to add that I completely agree with the guy offering to donate the plot. Are we so spiteful that we refuse to bury a corpse because of what the living person did and would lash out at someone who offers to do what no one else wants to do?
I think it’s a very decent gesture.

A lot of people feel betrayed in THIS situation because they both had a lot of American friends, used our system to better themselves (aid) and then turned around and placed a backpack behind an eight year old boy, knowing he would die. Then they killed a few more, the pressure cookers were apparently designed to detonate low, which is pretty low down and dirty at a marathon, then they killed a patrolman, then tossed grenades at the cops.

I’m not saying any other attackers were any better than these, but I personally understand that Americans are feeling betrayed and that this attack was especially nasty. And a few people are also pretty upset that we had warning from Russia and let them back in anyway.

The point that is being missed by some is that a cremation would just be pouring gas on a fire with more jihad militants incited to kill and maimed more Americans. The emotions of af ew would cause the possible destruction of a burial plot and cemetery in Massachusetts. The body has to be released to a family member, mom and dad have disappeared. And the uncle can only try and find a spot in the USA.

@Tropical_Willie Mom and dad both disappeared, I hadn’t heard that, seriously? Last I heard they were denying their boys had anything to do with terrorists.

@KNOWITALL Correct. The parents are gone. @Tropical_Willie has that right.

That’s why I stated what I did above.

Neither parent will come to the USA anytime soon. @Tropical_Willie Thanks for shedding light on the fact that the uncle has the rights to the body now. I thought I’d heard prior to this that the wife was not involved in this at all. I kept wondering whom was attempting to proceed with the burial.

Oh for fucks sake it’s a dead body. Put it in a box throw it in the ground and be done with it. I’ll never understand this attachment with the body after death. Either you believe you’re just dead and that’s it when you die or that your spirit goes on to some after life or something. Either way the body is now a completely and utterly useless husk.

I wish there weren’t such strict laws for burying people. I have 80 acres and I would let them bury him here if it were legal. I think it’s just stupid. If he weren’t Muslim I would say cremate him and give his ashes to his mother. It’s not the funeral directors fault, he’s just doing his job.

Mom and dad have disappeared? They haven’t disappeared. They are back in Russia. Why don’t they have their son’s body shipped back to his homeland? I’m confused.

Even Oswald was buried without much fanfare or protest. We can do this.

His family buried him, @filmfann. I mean, they carried his coffin and wept at his grave. Why doesn’t the family of this man come forward and claim the body and give him a proper burial? What am I missing?

I read earlier today that Russia would not accept his body, but I can’t find a link now.

I wish that the body could be cremated, but since that is not acceptable according to Islamic law, it shouldn’t be done.

What a bizarre situation. It’s a body – bury it.

I hadn’t even thought about the wife. If that was my babydad, I think I would be making arrangements… for my child’s sake.

@bkcunningham, no one will accept his body.

That is what I am asking, @Judi. His own parents or his family won’t accept his body for a decent burial?

@bkcunningham, it’s not his parents, it’s the cemeteries.

It’s what cemeteries, @Judi? I’ve read about the people who are trying to donate plots and all that. I’m saying why should strangers donate plots when he has family. Why aren’t they stepping up and retrieving his body and giving him a proper burial according to their beliefs?

I read an article in The Guardian (I don’t know how to put words in italics) that said his father was coming to the US to visit his wounded son and to retrieve his other son’s body for burial but the father’s “blood pressure” was causing him problems and he didn’t feel up to traveling. That sounds like BS to me. Sorry, but if it was my son; good, bad or indifferent, me or someone in my family would claim his body.

It just seems strange to me. Sad, too.

The cemeteries won’t allow him to be buried there. I believe they are afraid of vandalism.

Stick him in an unmarked grave, in a random cemetery. We manage to put people in protective custody, help them to change their names, and start new lives. Couldn’t we do a similar thing with this? Remove the label, and stick the casket in an unmarked pauper’s grave in some obscure cemetery.

Or better yet, since nobody wants the body and we can’t cremate him, bury him at sea in an undisclosed location. Boom, done!

I was going to ask a similar question about Tamerlan Tsarnaev buried in Virginia cemetery. I wonder why he had to be buried at all! Why not cremate the body and send the remains to his family?

One thing I don’t want to hear is that cremating him would be “un-Islamic”. I think that he gave up any rights, religious or civil, when he helped to blow up all of those people in the marathon.

Like @snowberry “cremate him” but I wouldn’t pollute the ocean with the ashes. Wrap them in an old newspaper and throw the ashes in the trash.

It’s not for his sake that he was given an Islamic burial, it was out of respect for the millions of peace loving people who are Muslim. We have acted arrogant enough in recent years. We really don’t need to needlessly give more cause for people to hate us.