Family's Mosque Won't Hold Funeral for Tsarnaev: Aunt

Islamic organizations distance themselves from suspected Boston bomber
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 24, 2013 11:09 AM CDT
Family's Mosque Won't Hold Funeral for Tsarnaev: Aunt
In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, accepts the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship from Dr. Joseph Downes, right, in Lowell, Mass.   (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie)

Authorities are ready to release Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body to his family, but family members—so far—have nowhere to hold the funeral. The Boston-area mosque the family attends declined a request to hold the suspected Boston bomber's burial and funeral there, Tsarnaev's aunt tells NBC News. And over the weekend, the leader of an organization that arranges Islamic burials and funerals in the Boston area told the Huffington Post, "I would not be willing to do a funeral for him."

"This is a person who deliberately killed people," says the aforementioned leader. "There is no room for him as a Muslim. He already left the fold of Islam by doing that. In the Quran it says those who will kill innocent people, they will dwell in the hellfire." Dozens of other Islamic organizations and mosques have distanced themselves from the Tsarnaev brothers, but an imam from Boston's biggest mosque says that while he wouldn't feel ethically comfortable leading a prayer for Tamerlan, "I would not stop people from praying upon him." (More mosque stories.)

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