Radical Islamic terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik received a traditional Islamic burial Tuesday.
The U.S.-born Farook, 28, and his Pakistani-born accomplice wife Malik, 29, were buried Tuesday in a quiet, graveside funeral which followed traditional Islamic rituals (Salat al-Janazah) and was guarded by FBI agents, according to Reuters. The only Muslim cemetery that was willing to take the bodies of the terrorists who murdered 14 people and left 21 wounded during a December 2 holiday party is located several hours away from San Bernardino, where the attack took place. No one was willing to identify the cemetery where the terrorists are buried for fear of reprisal.
It was thought no one in the Muslim community would accept their bodies due to the nature of their crime.
Reuters notes that 10 people were in attendance, including members of Farook’s family and people who used to pray with him at a mosque in San Bernardino, although it is noted that many of those who attended mosques with the couple refused to attend. Farook used to attend Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah mosque in San Bernardino in addition to several others throughout the county.
According to the Telegraph, he would visit it about three times a week, usually during his lunch break from work as a San Bernardino County health inspector. Malik reportedly did not join him, although a member of the mosque noted that he had once seen Malik sitting in Farook’s car about nine months prior to the attack, wearing a niqab, a veil that covers all but a woman’s eyes.
It reportedly took one week to find a graveyard willing to accept the bodies. According to Muslim tradition, the dead are usually buried within 24 hours. Reuters notes that the terrorists’ bodies were cleansed in accordance with Islamic rules and wrapped in white cloth before being buried.
It was thought that Malik would not receive a traditional burial and would instead be cremated, which is forbidden under Islamic law. Attorney Troy Slayton previously suggested to Fox News that the body would have eventually been turned over to the public administrator if no one claimed it and that it would be cremated “because it’s the cheapest option.” Attorney David Wohl had said “the state is not going to care about religious tradition. She was a terrorist.” The situation proved otherwise.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, was ultimately buried in an unmarked grave in Virginia after cemeteries in Massachusetts refused to accept the terrorist’s corpse.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was buried at sea after he was killed in May 2011, in a ceremony that Obama administration officials said was in conformity with Islamic law. The claim was always dubious; the real reason for a burial at sea was to prevent his grave from becoming a shrine.
Farook and Malik left behind a 6-month-old daughter, who has been in state custody since the Dec. 2 massacre. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – a UAE-designated terrorist organization and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial – has been trying to help Farook’s sister and brother-in-law, Saira and Farhan Khan, adopt their niece.
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