Desecration of Cemeteries is An Act of Barbarism

by Sheila Musaji

In the past few years, we have been seeing many disgusting attacks of desecration and vandalism of gravestones in cemeteries.  Here are just a few of these:

Graves at a Muslim cemetery in Crimea were desecrated.  2012

Jewish graves in Franklin, New Hampshire were desecrated.  2012

Hundreds of Jewish graves were desecrated in the Ukraine.  2012

27 graves in a Jewish Veterans cemetery in Florida were desecrated.  2012

A Muslim cemetery in Carros near Nice was desecrated.  2012

Jewish graves were desecrated at a cemetery near Nice in Southern France.  2012

The graves of several Muslim soldiers who fought for France in a cemetery in southeastern France were desecrated.  2012

Muslim graves were desecrated at the ancient Mamilla cemetery in Jerusalem. 2011

More than 100 graves were desecrated in the Muslim cemetery of al-Kazakhana and at a nearby Christian cemetery in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, Israel.  2011

Eighteen Muslim graves were desecrated in the central Kazakh town of Aktau 2011

30 Muslim graves of WWI soldiers who died fighting for France were desecrated in Carcassone, south-west France. 2011

27 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France were desecrated.  2010

Muslim graves were desecrated for second time in Brumby Cemetery in Britain.  2010

20 Muslim graves were desecraed at a cemetery in south Manchester, England.  2009
Muslim cemetery in Manchester, England was desecrated for the third time in three months.  2009

Vandals desecrated 148 Muslim graves in France’s biggest war cemetery, hanging a pig’s head from one tombstone and daubing slogans insulting France’s Muslim justice minister.  2008

500 French Muslim war veterans’ graves were desecrated in third attack in one year in France.  2008 (photo above)

Muslim cemetary in West Bank, Israel was desecrated by Orthodox Jews.  2007

Vandals daubed swastikas on the graves of Muslim soldiers in a military cemetery in Alsace, eastern France, and 60 graves in the Muslim section of a Strasbourg cemetery were desecrated.  2004

This brief list is very sad, as it shows that such behavior is carried out by members of many communities around the globe.  And, this barbarity continues.  In February, the graves of tombs at the British military cemetary in Benghazi, Libya were desecrated in protest of a Qur’an burning by U.S. soldiers, and this week another gravestone in that cemetery was desecrated.

Such acts can only be viewed as barbaric and cruel by decent people.  It doesn’t matter who carried out the desecration, or what their justification.  It is outside of the bounds of decency.

It is even more ghoulish and barbaric to focus selectively on one such act in an attempt to smear only one community, and to make it seem that they are the only ones capable of such barbarity.  According to hateful bigots like Pamela Geller, “under the Sharia this act of desecration is righteous”.  Her partner in hate, Robert Geller wrote “the Muslims who felt free to desecrate them were working from the same attitude of contempt for unbelievers and their works. ...  As such, non-Muslim analysts would do well not to see these desecrations as isolated incidents. But given that willful blindness about the ways in which jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism is now official dogma in Washington, never to be questioned, it is much more likely that these incidents will be brushed aside or ignored altogether in the continued quixotic and ever-fruitless effort by the leaders of the “worst of creatures” to win hearts and minds among those of the “best of nations.”

As usual, Geller and Spencer are WRONG.  Such behavior is not “righteous” under the Sharia, under Halakha, or according to any religion.  The desecration of graves (or the desecration of human bodies) is an act of absolute contempt for humanity.  Sadly such criminal acts are carried out by extremist and bigoted members of all communities. Muslims are no more likely than anyone else to carry out such acts.  The only individuals who actually promote or carry out such acts proudly, are individuals like those connected with groups like Infidels United and other Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, or extremist groups.

No one except truly extreme bigots would actually praise such behavior, as Geller did recently, or even rejoice in such acts as Bonni of Bare Naked Islam did recently.

No one except such extreme bigots would encourage others to carry out such behavior.  Infidels United (whose site says they “stand in defense of freedom” just like Geller calls herself a “defender of freedom”), actually posted an appeal for a Muslim grave desecration program.  This not only encourages the desecration of Muslim graves, but of doing it in a way that will frighten Muslim families into leaving the country.  Here are a couple of short passages from this hateful screed

... Notify the surviving family members that their loved ones remains will be desecrated in the next six months unless removed. Send photos of the headstone with the notice. Send copies of these to CAIR as well who will scream like stuck pigs but be impotent to stop it. This will horrify the moslem community.

The means of desecration should be pigs blood and offal, with pigs heads for really deserving people who were high-profile in public life. As muslims have a fear of pigs blood and parts touching them, and in their belief system, it will cause them to go to hell, the threat to desecrate is a very real one to them. The family elders will be most upset about this threat. This hits them where they live. If pigs blood or body parts were to be buried on their loved ones gravesite it would cause great mental anguish to the ones we want to leave. Burying a bloody pigs foot on the plot with a picture sent to the family members will get their attention. One stock photo of a pigs foot being buried with a trowel, and another of the dearly departeds headstone should complete the threat. A picture of a burnt koran on top of a grave should send them into fibrillation and heart attacks.

...  This procedure of desecration should be a deterrent to remaining in our countries where we do not want them as their departed family members remains can never be totally safe, burial wise.

...  To make sure the lesson is learned and passed on with horror to all their friends, there are several things one can do. Report a drug shipment to the DEA before they ship the body. Having the casket ripped open and searched will get their absolute attention.  On arrival the authorities should be armed with a report of weapons & explosives being shipped in he casket, forcing yet another search of the remains.

There is a reason that the ADL (A Jewish anti-defamation group) has said that Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’s Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) is a “group that promote an extreme anti-Muslim agenda”.   There is a reason that The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated SIOA as a hate group, and that they are featured in the SPLC reports Jihad Against Islam and The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle.  There is a reason that Geller and Spencer are featured prominently in the Center for American Progress “Fear Inc.” report on the Islamophobia network in America.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the People for the American Way Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the NYCLU report Religious Freedom Under Attack:  The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State.  There is a reason that Geller is featured in the Political Research Associates report Manufacturing the Muslim menace: Private firms, public servants, and the threat to rights and security.  There is a reason that the SIOA’s trademark patent was denied by the U.S. government due to its anti-Muslim nature.  There is a reason that they are featured in our TAM Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry.  There is a reason that these folks are featured in just about every legitimate report on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. 

I don’t know if we will ever come to a point where hatred doesn’t exist.  But, I do know that encouraging and praising such acts of hatred will not help us all to reach that point.  And, listening to the purveyors of such hatred will not help us to live together with respect as civilized people.