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Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 12:32 PM UTC

Boston mosque refuses to bury Tamerlan

The aunt of the deceased bombing suspects approached the mosque, but was declined

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Topics: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Explosions, Boston Bombings, Boston Marathon bombing,

Boston mosque refuses to bury Tamerlan Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Wikimedia)

The aunt of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspect killed in a police shoot out, was denied her request to see her nephew buried in a Boston mosque. The aunt of the suspects told NBC that “one of the suspects’ uncles approached the imam of a Boston mosque attended by the brothers to request a burial and funeral service but was declined.”

This mosque is not the only one in Boston reticent to lay the 26-year-old’s body to rest. The denials and equivocations are a part of a broader pattern of Muslims and Chechens understandably distinguishing themselves from the Tsarnaev brothers in the massacre’s wake. Via NBC:

Members of The Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., which the brothers attended, have been questioned by FBI agents, Yusufi Vali, a spokesman for the mosque said Tuesday.

Asked on Tuesday whether his mosque would conduct the burial, he told reporters: “That’s a decision that we’d leave up to a scholar. This one is complex because the things that this guy did were just absolutely disgraceful.”

Earlier this week, Imam Talal Eid of the Islamic Institute of Boston, told The Huffington Post: “I would not be willing to do a funeral for him. This is a person who deliberately killed people. There is no room for him as a Muslim.”

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

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