Abhorrent Bodies: Burying Evil

TitleAbhorrent Bodies: Burying Evil
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsAuthor Paul Mullins, Author Paul Mullins
ISSN2374-1406
Abstract

The cemetery adheres to Sharia burial rites, which include the ritual washing of the corpse, shrouding of the body, and burial without a casket, usually with little or no burial markers.The anxiety sparked by the couple's burial reflects their status among the most repugnant of the dead, people so evil that their physical remains threaten our common values after their death.Such figures' literal corporeal remains hold a persistent grip on our collective anxiety, their memories firmly planted in heritage discourses even as we attempt to efface their human remains from the landscape.Many of history's darkest figures were denied a formal burial place primarily to prevent their graves from becoming pilgrimage sites.A British soldier who helped bury Himmler was instructed that the location "`was not to be told to anyone for if some fanatical Germans got to hear about it they would have dug up the coffin and made a big parade with his body and made a martyr and worshipped him like a God.'" The Lancaster, California Mayor said much the same about Farook and Malik's burial, worrying that it would become "An attraction for martyrdom." After Spandau Prison's final prisoner Rudolf Hess died, the jail was torn down and its structural remains pulverized.The remains of revered figures often become one of the key places followers visit on journeys that fortify deeply held values and provide spiritual inspiration.In the wake of World War II the Allies were wary that places like…

Short TitleAbhorrent Bodies