[Newsbot]

Title: Anger over plan to dig up 350,000 bodies in historic London cemetery for Muslim burial site
Category: Strange
Posted By: N_Fiddledog
Date: 2014-02-24 10:05:09

[saturn_656]

$1:

"To preserve the respect and dignity for everyone, I think most of the graves would have to be cleared out and we'd start afresh."

Well I know he isn't referring to the dignity of the people buried there.

[commanderkai]

Wow...that's just douchey.

[Yogi]

Bad link. Keeps freezing up.

Anyway all needs to be done is to bury a few pigs around the property and then let it be known!

[N_Fiddledog]

Here ya go then...

"It is a peaceful resting place for 350,000 souls - an historic graveyard which now serves as a nature reserve.

But plans are afoot to dig up the ancient graves at Tower Hamlets Cemetery - and reopen it as a 21st century burial site.

Officially it would be known as a "multi-faith" cemetery but it is likely that it would principally answer calls for a Muslim graveyard in the largely-Asian East London borough.

The local newspaper has been bombarded with letters from historians and nature lovers declaring: "There is no way we'll allow them to dig up our ancestors."

But the Labour-controlled council's environment spokesman Abdal Ullah appeared to be in no doubt about the feasibility of the plan when he said: "To preserve the respect and dignity for everyone, I think most of the graves would have to be cleared out and we'd start afresh."

He said a corner of the cemetery would be reserved for Muslims who are buried in shrouds at a depth of 6ft and on their side facing Mecca.

By law, any graves more than 75 years old can be removed.

At the cemetery yesterday, liaison officer Ken Greenway - the only paid member of staff tending the 33-acre site - said he was astonished that anyone would even contemplate such a move.

"I'm against it and I have to stand up for that because of the huge value of this site today," he added.

"It's a beautiful haven for wildlife and people."

The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery was opened in 1841 by an Act of Parliament.

During the Second World War it was bombed five times and some headstones still bear the marks of shrapnel hits.

Other markers have gone altogether, torn down when the graveyard was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by another Act of Parliament in 1966 when it was deemed to be full.

The intention was to create an open space for the public, which led to two bomb-damaged chapels being demolished and a swathe of graves cleared.

In 1986 ownership passed from the Greater London Council to Tower Hamlets and in 1990 the Friends of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park was set up.

Seven years ago the park became the borough's first nature reserve and it is now tended by 1,600 volunteers.

It is home to 27 species of butterfly, a rare bumble bee, woodpeckers, sparrowhawks and the elusive firecrest.

Some 8,000 schoolchildren visit every year for outdoor nature lessons.

Professor David Bellamy, who is patron of the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, said: "Tower Hamlets Cemetery is still a place of peace and reflection as it has been since it was saved from becoming just another part of East London's urban sprawl.

"Now in its new guise as a local nature reserve and green lung, people of every colour, creed and kind share their humanity with that of other living things.

"I can only pray that the wisdom of all faiths can together discover the right way ahead for this very special part of East London's heritage."

Last night the council was insisting there were no plans to re-open the park as a cemetery.

"It is a popular and historic nature park and if there were any proposalsto alter the look or the functionality, there would be a full consultation with interested parties," said a spokesman.

However the council admitted it had been looking at "options" for burial sites.

And Lib Dem group leader Stephanie Eaton said she had received a letter from the council chief executive admitting the park was one of the options being considered."

[BartSimpson]

The United Islamic Kingdom.

[ShepherdsDog]

cremation for any and all who die from now on. My buddy had a gold ring and figurine made with ashes of his first wife, after she passed. The rest of the ashes were spread on her parents farm

[saturn_656]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

cremation for any and all who die from now on. My buddy had a gold ring and figurine made with ashes of his first wife, after she passed. The rest of the ashes were spread on her parents farm

I'm getting my remains shot off into space. One way or another I'm getting out of here!

[Strutz]

It should be left as it is out of respect for those that rest there.

There must be somewhere else to create a new burial site.

[Brenda]

$1:

By law, any graves more than 75 years old can be removed.

So why 'dig up all graves and start fresh'? NO need for that.
Dig up all graves older than 75 years and leave the rest in peace.

[saturn_656]

Brenda Brenda:

$1:

By law, any graves more than 75 years old can be removed.

So why 'dig up all graves and start fresh'? NO need for that.
Dig up all graves older than 75 years and leave the rest in peace.

What are they going to do with all those bodies?

Mass grave?

[Brenda]

What they do with all bodies that have, by law, to be dug up. Destroy them.

It is every day practice at cemeteries.

Also, I didn't write that law...

[saturn_656]

Brenda Brenda:

What they do with all bodies that have, by law, to be dug up. Destroy them.

It is every day practice at cemeteries.

Also, I didn't write that law...

Must be a European thing. Never heard of digging up graves for such reasons around here.

[Brenda]

I happens all the time. There is simply not enough room to keep everyone buried till the end of time.

You can buy a burial plot for an x-amount of time, and after that, it will be dug up and emptied and someone else can use it.

[peck420]

Brenda Brenda:

I happens all the time. There is simply not enough room to keep everyone buried till the end of time.

Our unfamiliarity with this subject may have to do with our abundance of space and the relatively young age of our country.

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that our oldest cemeteries are considered rather new by European standards.