According to the latest reports, the bodies of the three French terrorists, Amedy Coulibaly, Chérif Kouachi, and his brother Saïd Kouachi, who carried out the massacres in Paris at the offices of Charlie Hebdo and at a Kosher supermarket, are laying in a Paris morgue and rotting, unclaimed.
After having murdered 17 innocent people in cold blood, all in the name of Allah (“peace be upon him”), it’s little wonder no one wants to bury the men.
In Israel, the bodies of Palestinian terrorists are usually returned to their families fairly quickly. Generally, large celebration parties then ensue, in order to give the deceased a “martyr’s funeral.” It seems the same can not be said for the French authorities.
According to French law — which in the past has offered a Muslim burial even to those who committed terrorist acts — if handling the body is not explicitly specified in the will, families of dead relatives need to make an official request for burial to the mayor of the city in which they lived, or died.
Back in 2012, Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman with Algerian roots who killed seven people, including three children and a rabbi, at a Jewish school in Toulouse, was buried anonymously in a Muslim plot in Cornebarrieu, near Toulouse.
Due to the current high tensions in France following last week’s attacks, several French mayors have already made it clear that they will refuse to let terrorists be buried in their cities, fearing that the graves could become places of pilgrimage for other extremists .
One example is Arnaud Robinet, the mayor of Reims, where the Kouachi brothers are from, who told reporters, “If I’m asked to bury Saïd Kouachi, I will refuse categorically. I don’t want a grave in Reims to become a place of prayer and contemplation for some fanatics.”
In the case of Merah’s funeral, Abdallah Zekri of the French Council of the Muslim Faith said he organized Mr. Merah’s funeral at the request of his family.
“I buried him in an isolated corner, alone, and it didn’t become a place of pilgrimage. I want French authorities to bury these men in the most complete silence. I want them to be buried fast, and without any propaganda.”
