----- Original Message -----
From: "Assalamu Aleikum"
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 1:29 PM
Subject: COLOGNE, A CITY OF NAZI HORRORS, DENIES MUSLIM BURIALS
Assalamu aleikum.
It is shameful that the same nazi scum from Cologne
(Koeln) who packed thousands of their fellow citizens
on cattle trains to die in death camps are now denying
burials to Muslims. Perhaps "stumbling stones" should
be placed at Muslim gravesites as a reminder to
Cologne as to just what low standing Cologne has in
the world community.
Please note that 2 articles follow:
*Cologne: "Stumbling stones" as memorial of the
Holocaust
*German City Refuses Islamic Burials
---
(1)
Cologne: "Stumbling stones" as memorial of the
Holocaust
BBC
WEDNESDAY 9th February 2005
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/germany_insideout/rhineland3.shtml
---
photo:
Stumbling Stone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/germany_insideout/images/stolperstein.jpg
---
The word German "Stolperstein" - literally stumbling
stone - means an obstacle in your path, preventing you
from reaching your desired goal. In Cologne, however,
some stumbling stones have come to take on a very
different meaning - a way of reaching the goal of
historical understanding and remembrance.
Artist Gunter Demnig has created a series of
Stolpersteine that commemorate thousands of Cologne's
residents who died in the Holocaust, including 15,000
Jews. His project involves replacing the ordinary
cobblestones on the pavements of the city, putting in
their place stones bearing a simple inscription -
name, date of birth and the date and place of death,
if known. The stones are positioned outside the houses
of Jews, gypsies and others who were murdered by the
Nazi regime. The simplicity of the concept is one of
its most effective aspects. Many passers-by stop to
look at and discuss the inscriptions on the ground
beneath their feet. These stones are indeed something
that you can almost physically stumble over.
In the years after 1945, there was little inclination
in Germany to examine the Holocaust. History books
ignored the subject entirely or concentrated only on
the suffering of Germans themselves during the Second
World War. Many history teachers were themselves
tainted by the Nazi era and found it was easier to
pass over the subject in silence.
Now, by contrast, the horrors of the Holocaust are a
constant theme in school subjects - from history and
religion to literature. Teachers, such as Albert
Deckers, are faced with the task of introducing the
subject to young teenagers. He says: "As a German in
Germany, you can't get past the subject."
For his class, learning about the Nazi past is not
just a duty. His pupils have been actively involved in
supporting Gunter Demnig's Stolperstein project by
raising money for dozens of the stumbling stones, each
with its own name, to be placed outside the house of
the person named on the miniature plaque. Several
members of the class attend the hammering into place
of the stones. The simple inscription reads: "Here
lived Engelbert Brinker, tortured and murdered by the
Gestapo in 1944."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/germany_insideout/rhineland3.shtml
---
(2)
German City Refuses Islamic Burials
By Ahmed Al-Matboli
IOL Correspondent
Islam Online
February 9, 2005
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/09/article01.shtml
---
photo:
A file photo of cemeteries in Koeln.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/09/images/pic01.jpg
---
KOELN, Germany February 9 (IslamOnline.net) - Despite
legislative amendments adopted to allow the Muslim
community in Nordrehin Westfallen province to bury
their dead in shroud, the German city of Koeln insists
the German Muslims be buried in coffins according to
Christian burial rituals, casting doubts on efforts to
integrate the Muslim community in the German society.
In September 2003, the German state of Nordrehin
Westfallen has taken a decision to amend its burial
laws, allowing the Muslim community to bury their
deceased wrapped in shroud, in accordance with Islamic
tenets.
Under the German burial laws, relatives of the
deceased are required to wait 48 hours before a burial
can take place and must bury their dead in a coffin --
or if the corpse has been cremated -- in an urn.
Helmut Strack, an official in charge of Koeln's
cemetery department, said dead Muslims must be buried
in coffins, in compliance with Christian burial
rituals.
He claimed that the deceased body should be buried
four days after death, to allow for burial papers -
that take up to two days - to be issued.
A similar stance was echoed by Ute Raute-Kreinse, a
German pathologist.
"Burying the dead wrapped in shroud will harm the
cemetery's visitors and workers due to the body's
disintegration. It is quite right to bury the dead in
coffins," she told the Tageszeitung daily.
Such claims were immediately rebuffed by the Muslim
community.
Burial of dead Muslims takes place long before the
body's disintegration, German Muslims say.
There are certain determined legal rulings concerning
the Muslim on his death [
http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=92676
], such as washing him, wrapping him with a shroud,
performing the Janazah or funeral prayer for him and
being placed in his grave facing Qiblah, according to
the Islamic Shari'ah.
Stand-off
The stand-off between the Muslim community and the
Koeln cemetery department over burial rituals is
expected to be solved this February, according to
IslamOnline.net correspondent.
The councils for integration and immigrants have been
exerting strenuous efforts to reach a solution to the
standing dispute.
"The immigrants' council is coordinating with the
Muslim community to reach an agreement on the
stand-off before being forwarded to the city council,"
Aref Uenal, head of the immigrants' health council,
said.
The immigrants' council has also called on Koeln's
cemetery department to discuss alternatives to allow
Muslims to bury their dead wrapped in shroud, Uenal,
who is also the spokesman of the Greens Party's health
affairs department, added.
He noted that some Islamic bodies accept the burial of
Muslims in coffins as the case in Turkey, but some
conservative Muslims still insist on burying their
dead in shrouds.
The integration council, for its part, expressed fears
Koeln's insistence to bury Muslims in coffins in
accordance with Christian burial laws would undermine
efforts to integrate the Muslim community into the
German society.
Sirdar Demir from the Turkish-Islamic Union said 95%
of Turkish Muslims in Koeln refuse to be buried
according to Christian burial rituals, demanding
instead to be buried in their homeland Turkey.
Koeln is home to the biggest Muslim community in
Germany.
Islam comes third after Protestant and Catholic
Christianity in Germany.
There are some 3.4 million Muslims in the country,
including 220,000 in Berlin. An estimated two thirds
of them are of Turkish origin.
Church Opposition
Uenal expressed hope the ongoing negotiations would
bear fruits in amending the burial laws in the German
city.
However, an official in Koeln's cemetery department
denied intention to amend the burial laws in the city,
citing church opposition to such amendments.
German churches branded as a violation of the
Christian burial rituals the amendments introduced to
burial laws in the Nordrehin Westfallen, according to
the Stadt Revue magazine.
There are some 60 cemeteries in Koeln.
Around 50 Muslims are buried in these cemeteries every
year, according to the German magazine.
The oldest Muslim cemetery in Germany was built in
1866 in Berlin.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/09/article01.shtml
***************************************************************************
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