A row has erupted over a plan to dig up a third of a million bodies from an historic east London cemetery to make way for a new Muslim burial site.
Tower Hamlets council in London is considering reopening the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Mile End to answer a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area.
The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there.
Opposing the plan, environmentalist and broadcaster David Bellamy is leading calls for the park to be kept as a wildlife haven.
The botanist, who is patron of a charity that acts as the guardian of the graveyard, said he will ‘pray that the wisdom of all faiths’ prevails in the decision over the cemetery’s future.
They have bombarded their local paper, the East London Advertiser, with protests against the plan to exhume 350,000 graves dating back to 1841, including those of the children of Dr Barnardo.
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1 ishmael // Oct 15, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Under the terms of the UN declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples , which is part of international law ,our graveyards are protected from despoilation,under article 12, indigenous peoples have the right to the repatriation of thier human remains,and since they are already in our country they can not be removed,as graves are protected sites.here is a law that we can use, USE IT!
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