As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on communities across the world, religious rituals like funerals and burials elicit special sorrow and frustrations. Practices are changing rapidly, driven by public health concerns as well as, in some places, the sheer scale of deaths. 

In Sri Lanka, health officials have prompted amendments to a law that makes cremation compulsory for victims of COVID-19, to prevent any contamination threats due to burials. This has led to strong opposition from members of the island nation’s Muslim community. They accuse the government of violating Islamic burial rights, as in both Islam and Judaism, cremation is forbidden and there is an obligation that members of the faith be buried. Muslim leaders insist that the government follow the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 guidelines, which allows for both cremations and burials. While the bodies of COVID-19 victims are not thought to present a contagion risk (in contrast, this is the case for Ebola victims), Sri Lankan officials argue that burying the bodies of those who have died due to COVID-19 will lead to physical contact with the water table, thus leading to infection of the water supply. There is a clear and urgent need for religious communities and government health officials to develop ways to keep communities safe and protected while honoring the religious rights and customs of faith communities. This is important both as a human obligation to honor deeply held beliefs of different communities, but also to avoid inflaming intercommunal tensions.

(Based on: April 12, 2020, Huffington Post and Al Jazeera articles)