Scholars are divided on this point, with some suggesting it was unjustified and was carried out to dishonor bin Laden and others saying it was a practical decision in this situation.
“[His] body should only be buried on land, under the dirt…. Officially, he should be buried in his own country, Saudi Arabia,” says Alkhooly, the Syracuse imam. “It's not allowed to bury anyone in the sea or ocean unless he or she died there and there is fear that the body would rot before they found close land.”
Although in most cases a sea burial would be unlawful in Islam, says Kobeisy, sharia law allows for exceptions in extreme circumstances.
“What they have done has no religious justification since he was already on land and was taken to sea,” Kobeisy writes. “If they wanted to follow the religious rules, they could have kept the body in a morgue.… They could have preserved the body until it was delivered to his family or buried in land.”
But, he adds, sharia law, which establishes burial rulings in Islam, is designed to increase benefits and reduces detriments to society, and only from that perspective might bin Laden’s sea burial be justified. “If his return to the land was assessed to lead to chaos, fighting and perhaps killing, then burying [bin Laden’s] body in the sea would be justified,” he writes.
