Returning to the cemetery

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A day after the article was published, I received a message from a relative of the deceased, in which he explained that the chaos that I criticized at the moment of offering condolences seemed minor compared to what often happens in the mosque, during prayer service for the deceased.

He says in his message that he noticed, on more than one occasion, that bodies were placed in close proximity to the places designated for shoes, which is an insult to the dead.

He also complained about the imam prolonging the prayer time, and that more than one person, on that day, complained about this unjustified prolongation, especially in the case of the presence of a number of deceased people, and thousands of people waiting outside the mosque to offer their condolences, especially when the weather is cold, dusty, or hot.

He also complained bitterly about the situation immediately after the end of the prayer for the deceased. No one knows how to adhere to the system for leaving the place by vehicle, as there are no organized parking lots, exits, or entrances, but rather complete chaos, anger, and delay, and everyone wants to offer condolences all at one time. There is only one portal for everyone.

We hope that Minister Al-Shula, in his capacity as Minister of Municipality, will address this problem, as the task of educating people is a long overdue matter.

In a previous article, I had written about the situation in the cemetery during eulogy of the late colleague Naji Al-Zaid. I criticized the disorderly behavior at the cemetery at the time of offering condolences when everyone forgot about the “the etiquette of standing in queue,” and behaving in an uncivilized way, despite dozens of banners placed in every nook and corner requesting proper etiquette.

We also wrote a few days ago about the advice given by Mr. Abdullah Al-Nafisi to the presenter of the Black Box program, brother Ammar Taqi, to visit the US Library of Congress and meet Monsieur “George Attiya,” and we showed, after research, that there is no Monsieur Attia working for the Library of Congress, and that it is not true.

What Al-Nafisi said is that there is an Israeli plan to occupy the Gulf states, whether in actual or logical terms. Rather, there was only a study prepared by the US Congress related to this topic.

After publishing the article, I received a kind message from the friend and reader, Mrs. Faryal Al-Fraih, in which she explained that she and her late husband, Abdullah Al-Naibari, had a good relationship with Monsieur George, who was a gentle and generous person, and that he was an expert and scholar among the librarians, and he played a role in increasing the number of Arabic books and references in the Middle East Department of the Great Library of Congress.

By searching the Internet, I found that George Attiya was born in Lebanon in 1923, and studied there, before migrating to the United States, where he obtained a doctorate in the history of philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1954.

In 1967, he headed the Near East Department at the Library of Congress, and the number of Arabic references increased in his time ranged from 15,000 to a quarter of a million references, and he died in April 2008, and for this reason, I often did not find his name in Congress during my search.

It is lucky for brother Ammar that he did not listen to Abdullah Al-Nafisi’s advice to visit “Monsieur Attiya,” who died 16 years ago!

e-mail: [email protected]

By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 791 times!