UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Gateway to Heaven? An Examination of Muslim Burials in Southwestern Ohio A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In the Department of Geography Of the College of Arts and Sciences 2006 by Nissa Fink B.A., The College of William and Mary, 2000 Committee: Chair: Dr. Roger M. Selya Dr. Nicholas Dunning Dr. Colleen McTague Abstract In 2004, land was purchased by the Muslim community in Memphis, TN with the express purpose of establishing an Islamic cemetery. Due to opposition by the local community, that plan was never carried out. Opposition to similar cemetery projects has also surfaced in Charlotte and Atlanta. While the reason for such opposition may be questioned, so may the reason for why a specifically Islamic cemetery is needed. What are the requirements of a Muslim burial? Can these requirements be performed in a mainstream cemetery? What happens in locations where no Islamic cemetery is available? This research examines the burials of Muslims in Southwest Ohio, with the purpose of examining both the locational and cultural attributes of these burials. The location of Muslim burials were obtained through interviews with local Muslim leaders; site surveys were used to examine the location of Muslim burials within the cemetery as well as demographics and cultural attributes of the individual burials. Cultural attributes examined included the existence of a cult of piety, burial markers, inscriptions and grave orientation. Keywords: Islam, Muslims, cemeteries, Necrogeography, burials, Cincinnati ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was completed with the assistance of many people. I would like to express my gratitude and thanks for their assistance and support. I would like to thank Dr. Roger M. Selya, who has been so helpful, not just in this thesis, but in my entire graduate career. He has always been there to act as a sounding board, to guide me in my education, and to give me a smile when I need one. I am grateful to my committee members Dr. Colleen McTague and Dr. Nicholas Dunning for their willingness to serve and their helpful comments. I am thankful for the assistance of Kevin Raleigh in my statistical analysis. He helped identify statistical techniques that might be appropriate and acted as a sounding board for many other aspects of the study. I wish to thank both Dr. Joseph Foster and Nuha Nasrallah for their kind assistance in translations. Dr. Foster was able to identify and translate a Serbo-Croatian inscription, and Nuha Nasrallah was there when my Arabic failed, as it often does. She was also very helpful in putting many things into context for me. I am appreciative of the other graduate students in the department with whom I have bounced off many ideas and who have helped me keep a modicum of sanity. These include, first and foremost, Susan Jakubowski, but also Seth Cavello, Robert Zajkowski, and Davin Hall. Finally I would like to thank my family. If it had not been for my husband, Jason R. Fink, none of this would have been possible. He and our daughter, Paige, have carried more than their fair share these past years, and for that I am eternally grateful. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vi INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of Purpose and Significance 2 Chapter Layout 3 ISLAM 4 What is Islam? 4 The Founding and Initial Diffusion of Islam 7 Sects in Islam 8 Muslims in the United States 10 Muslim Life in the United States 13 NECROGEOGRAPHY 19 Cultural Attributes of Cemeteries 19 Locational Attributes of Cemeteries 33 HYPOTHESES AND METHODOLOGY 39 Hypotheses 39 Methodology 41 RESULTS 47 ANALYSIS 64 CONCLUSION 72 Hypotheses Revisited 72 Is a cemetery really necessary? 73 Future Research 74 BIBLIOGRAPHY 76 APPENDIX A: GRAVE SURVEY FORM 79 APPENDIX B: DEFINITION OF TERMS USED IN GRAVE SURVEY FORM 80 iv APPENDIX C: GRAVE SURVEY FORM CODING KEY 82 APPENDIX D: DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS REPORT 84 v LIST OF FIGURES Page FIGURE 1 Study Area, Southwest Ohio 41 2 Muslim Burial Grounds and Mosques of Southwestern Ohio 42 3 Addresses of Islamic Burial Grounds and Mosques in 43 Southwest Ohio 4 Hopewell Cemetery, Grave 4 52 5 Hopewell Cemetery, Grave 7 53 6 Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Grave 25 55 7 Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Grave 2 57 8 Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Grave 21 57 9 Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Grave 6 58 10 Crown Hill Memorial Park, Grave 3 59 11 Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Grave 28 61 12 Crown Hill Memorial Park, Grave 13 62 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In January of 2004, a news article caught my attention. The article in question (Feagans, 2004) discussed the establishment of a Muslim cemetery in Lawrenceville, Georgia. A particularly hostile rezoning battle had been fought for nearly two years between the region’s Muslim community and those who opposed the establishment of a cemetery, particularly a Muslim cemetery, in an established middle-class neighborhood. An earlier news article (Glanton, 2002) detailed the arguments given by the residents. A variety of reasons were proffered for the resistance. There were those who stated they were against any further cemeteries in the area (a Methodist cemetery is located across the street from the Muslim cemetery). There were those who stated they were against any development in the area. Others argued that traditional Muslim burial practices, which does not include embalming or the use of sealed caskets, could pollute soil and groundwater alike. Others however, were virulently anti-Islamic, maintaining that such a cemetery would be a meeting place for undesirables. In this case, Islam was being equated with terrorism, and it was feared that fundamental Islamic terrorists would frequent the cemetery. Aside from the obviously anti-Islamic attitude uncovered by many of those interviewed, I was struck by the perceived necessity of a specifically Muslim cemetery. Why did this group of people need or want a separate cemetery? What did Islam require in burial that could not be satisfactorily accommodated within a commercial or secular cemetery? From the article, I knew that Muslims were not embalmed, nor did they use a traditional casket for burial. Yet I also knew that not every jurisdiction required these and many that did would allow for religious exemptions, so there must be something more to 1 it to force a small group to go to these lengths to purchase a costly parcel of land, engage in a lengthy legal dispute and deal with the threats that these people did, all in order to establish something so simple as a cemetery. So what was it that this group of Muslims needed, or felt that they could not get from a more mainstream cemetery? As I sought to answer these questions, the literature on cemeteries was less than helpful, as was the religious literature on Muslims. Nowhere could I find specifics on Muslim burial practices. Yet other Muslim communities, such as those in Charlotte, North Carolina and Flint, Michigan (Mostafavi, 2006), were working to establish their own cemeteries, so this was obviously something that was important to many Muslims. Statement of Purpose and Significance The research problem addressed in this study is to describe the burial practices of the Muslim community in Southwest Ohio. Understanding the burial needs of this community is important for two main reasons. First, it is possible that the Islamic community is facing discrimination, even if unknowingly. Does burial in Islam require more, or even just different, procedures than can be provided in a mainstream cemetery in the United States? This question cannot be answered without first knowing the requirements of Islam on this subject. The second important reason for this study is that Islam is reported to be one of the fastest growing religions in the world, and the Islamic community in the United States is no exception to this generalization. Although the exact number of adherents of any religion is hard to establish, and particularly for a religious group that has no formal oversight, such as Islam, it is estimated that as of 2006, Islam is now the second largest 2 religion in the United States, having surpassed Judaism. Whether this is true or not, Muslims constitute a growing percentage of the American population. Mainstream society will soon have to include our Muslim neighbors, yet if it is unknown what Islam requires of its followers, this cannot happen. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the growing body of knowledge on Islam in the United States. Chapter Layout Chapter 1 has focused on the reason this topic was chosen for study. Chapter 2 examines Islam, from its inception to the diffusion of the religion to Islam into the United States. Although this examination of Islam is by no means exhaustive, I have attempted to include everything needed for a basic understanding of the beliefs and requirements of the faith. The next chapter, Chapter 3, is a literature review of previous research in the field of Necrogeography. It is primarily from this chapter that the hypotheses and methodology, found in Chapter 4, were derived, although the rational for each hypothesis also draws from information on Islam found in Chapter 2. Chapter 5 examines the results of site surveys conducted of Muslim burials in Southwest Ohio while Chapter 6 contains an analysis of the results and a determination on the legitimacy of each hypothesis.