'Osama's religious traditions should be respected'

Amidst the celebrations over dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden's killing, some political figures have passed statements that they really should not be making.

Let's take a look at some...

Former ISI chief Hamid Gul has doubts about the "whole thing" because he feels that the American Central Intelligence Agency can make anything look like it is true.

He told a television channel, "The CIA has a way of creating such situations and choreographing such dramatic events. Probably, he had come for treatment or something like that, thats my hunch."

He said government figures have been saying that the operation as done in coordination with Pakistan intelligence.

"So if Pakistan intelligence was harbouring him then why would they coordinate with the American intelligence," he asked.

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Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Monday seemed to be criticising the US over the burial at sea given to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was killed by American forces in Pakistan.

"However big a criminal one might be, his religious traditions should be respected while burying him," he told media persons in New Delhi when asked about the burial process.

The US has maintained that the body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. The burial at sea was apparently due to fears that his land burial may become a site to attract his followers.

However, some Islamic organisations have said that it was not appropriate.

Radical Islamist cleric Omar Bakri said that with the death of the Al Qaeda chief, the Arab world had "lost a leader," and that he expected "revenge" attacks in Europe.

"The news of the death of Sheikh Osama has saddened and delighted us at the same time. It saddened us because we lost a leader in the Arab region and it is welcomed because he fell a martyr as he wanted," Bakri told a media agency in Lebanon.

"Undoubtedly the martyrdom of Osama bin Laden will infuse new life into the next generation as jihad will not stop. We expect reactions from this generation in Europe. their operations will take revenge for Sheikh Osama."

Bakri, a Sunni radical, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court for inciting murder, but was freed on bail in November pending a new trial. He lives in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.

Islam is opposed to burials at sea, a spokesman for Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority, said after US officials stated that Osama had been given a watery grave.

The Cairo-based Al-Azhar is the most prestigious centre of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world.

"If it is true that the body was thrown into the sea, then Islam is totally against that," Mahmud Azab, an adviser to the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, said.

"Any corpse, if it belongs to someone murdered or someone who died of natural causes, must be respected," said Azab, the adviser to Al-Azhar's chief for inter-religious affairs.

"The bodies of believers and non-believers, Muslim or Christian, must be respected," he said, adding that Tayeb was due to issue a formal statement.

"Islam only accepts burials" unless it is inevitable like for those who drowned, he said.

In Cairo, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative organisation with links around the Islamic world, condemned the killing of Osama by the US forces as an "assassination."

The Brotherhood, which seeks the establishment of a state run according to Islamic principles through peaceful means, is Egypt's most powerful and organised political movement.

The statement said the group "is against violence in general, against assassinations and in favour of fair trials."

Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani said the Al Qaeda mastermind was a symbol of resistance against US.

"Osama has been martyred while defending Muslims. He (Osama) was symbol of resistance against US oppression. But his martyrdom won't end resistance against the US in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Muslim world," Geelani told a news agency.

Reacting to US President Barack Obama's statement that they weren't enemies of Muslims or Islam, Geelani said, "We have no animosity with the people of US. But I've no hesitation in saying that the policies of US are against Muslim ummah. We condemned 9/11 attacks, as they were terrorist acts. But since then, US have massacred lakhs of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and now Libya."